Spira to Midgar
by Epic Popcorn
Summary: The saviors of Spira are accidentally frozen; freed after 1000 years where they awake in Gaia. Read how their presence influences the Planet's fate and unravel the mysteries of Spira & Gaia as Sin's vanquishers join Cloud's journey to save the Lifestream.
1. Awakening

**Disclaimer: **Final Fantasy VII and Final Fantasy X are copyrighted to Square Enix.  
**Word Count:** 2164  
**Pages: **7  
**Rating: **Teen. Contains swearing and action violence in some chapters.  
**Summary:** _One of Shinra's experiments goes awry and leaves the saviours of Spira encased in mako crystals. 1000 years later, the ShinRa Electric company discovers what they believe to be Ancients on board an old, destroyed air ship. AVALANCHE decide to help them when they overhear the board meeting during their rescue mission to save Aerith. Managing to free them, they join Cloud and AVALANCHE on their journey to combat the destruction of the Planet. _

_Inspiration for this fic came from reading about an interview with Kazushige Nojima that discussed the connection between the world's of FFX and FFVII. I wanted to explore that connection and write out one of my theories about it, while experimenting with how the characters of FFX would change the events in VII were they to be included in the journey._

* * *

"We are reinstating the Neo-Midgar program", President Shinra announced to his board members. "We will not be rebuilding Sector 7."

Reeve Tuesti, the one in charge of Urban Development questioned: "So…the Ancients?"

"Yes. We hope to achieve what we couldn't before, by incorporating a discovery we made several years ago. The Promised Land will soon be ours!" exclaimed the President.

"You believe that these are Ancients?" asked Reeve.

"It is quite likely that they are seeing as the crystals they are incarcerated in are estimated to be aged 1000 years."

At that moment a man with long black hair tied in a ponytail, wore glasses and a lab coat with a craze look in his eye entered the room.

"Hojo," Shinra addressed, "how is the girl?"

"Incapacitated at the moment, and a waiting further testing. There is an 18 percent difference between her and the mother. At this rate it will take about 120 years for the research to be complete…way past the life expectancy of the subject or our own. So we are thinking of breeding the specimen…" Hojo finished.

"No. She will not be bred. I have found an alternative. How long will the research take if I told you we have 11 possible Ancients being held in containment?"

"Newly discovered specimens?" Hojo blinked in surprise, "Why was I not informed of this?" Hojo inquired, sounding affronted.

"Because the discovery was made 5 years ago. One subject, the easiest one to excavate, was freed from its confines. We decided to keep the knowledge from you because of your...enthusiasm, for lack of better words, when it comes to new test subjects. We have studied him and released him into Sector 3. Unfortunately, he wasn't able to provide us with any information, seeing as the subject was only in his infancy. We saw no negative effects in health or behaviour, so we deemed it safe to release the others as well. They were not a priority at the time and our goals were refocused with a more important endeavour. Up until now, the subjects were not necessary and are still in their original state. But with the plans for Neo-Midgar reinstated, we have decided to proceed with studying these specimens. Please note that these studies are purely **_educational_** and no unnecessary testing should befall them."

"Where are these subjects located?" asked Hojo, eager to begin experimenting on the specimens.

"They are on sub-level 00, in containment area 0010. You may begin your studies on them now." Shinra stated.

"Very well, I will have them sent up to the 67th floor. I shall have tests done on them shortly."  
With that Hojo left the room.

"Is that all president?" Scarlet, another member of the board asked.

"Almost…increase the rate of mako production in all Sectors. Reeve and Scarlet will split the surplus income. That is all." concluded the president as a fat executive named Palmer rolled onto the conference table in disappointment of being left out of the Shinra budget again.

The board members left, the meeting coming to an end.

* * *

Unbeknownst to them a trio from the group known as 'AVALANCHE' was listening in on the meeting from an overhead air vent. AVALANCHE was an anti-Shinra group focused on shutting down ShinRa mako reactors. The electric company made them out to be terrorists to convince the public into siding with the company. But they were far from the criminals they were portrayed as. One was a retired coal miner missing an arm, one a bartender, and the other one claimed he was an ex-SOLDIER, part of ShinRa's private army.

"So Aerith isn't the last surviving Ancient?" the ex-SOLDIER, a man with untameable blond hair asked the other two.

"I guess not…we have to save them too Cloud!" a woman with long dark brown hair responded to the blond.

"Hold up! I thought we were here for Aerith!?" interjected a dark skinned man who's right forearm was replaced by a firearm.

"We need to help them too Barret! Didn't you hear Hojo was going to turn them into experiments as well?" the bartender protested.

"Tifa's right Barret. They might be able to help us…and even the President was reluctant to give those Ancients to Hojo; he must be insane! Nobody deserves to be subjected to that kind of madness" Cloud, the blond said, agreeing with his friend.

"Fine, fine…" grumbled Barret," can we get out of this shaft already!? The circulation to my ass cheeks is being cut off!"

"Right, lets go after Hojo,"

They moved down the length of the air vent they exited into a toilet stall. Scampering out of the washroom and running around a bend past the board room, they saw the crazed scientist opening the door to the stairwell.

Cloud, Tifa and Barret ran through the door and sneaked up a flight of stairs to see Hojo exit onto the 67th floor. The trio followed through the door and made their way toward the area the saw their target enter. The three froze when they reached the entrance of the area.

Hojo was in front of a cylindrical cell that contained an orange animal that resembled a cross between a lion and a wolf.

"This must be where they keep the subjects they're currently experimenting on. Aerith should be nearby…as well as those other Ancients." Cloud whispered to his partners.

Along with the cylindrical cell that held the lion-wolf, there was a dome shaped container with several long tubes feeding into it, opposite the animal's unit. Further up was an empty containment unit that was larger than the other two cells. It was clear on all sides and resembled the construction of the cylinder except that it was shaped as an ovular prism; its convex sides bending around whatever it was designed to keep sealed in and on the back side of the container was a locked set of sliding doors. Next to the empty containment unit, on the left, was a row of stand-alone cells that were abandoned at the moment.

Hearing footsteps behind them Tifa, Cloud, and Barret ducked behind a set of crates lying around the area. An assistant appeared at the entrance and made his way over to Hojo.

"The specimens you wanted are being brought up now."

"He must mean Aerith and the Ancients," Cloud mumbled.

Hojo nodded to his assistant with a look that clearly meant that he could not contain himself from apparent glee, "Excellent. I will be back for them shortly. I will prepare the laboratory on the 68th floor in case I need to use it," finishing with his assistant, Hojo turned and walked over to the maintenance elevator in the corner of the lab.

"Right, lets wait here and we'll try to free them before Hojo gets back," Cloud whispered his plan to the other two.

"Sounds simple enough," Barret grunted.

Tifa went to observe the lion-wolf in the cell while Barret hung back. Cloud turned around and faced the dome shaped unit. Walking up to the clear glass pane that displayed its insides Cloud peeked in. "Jenova…" he breathed, his words getting caught in his throat out of shock.

A high pitched ringing sounded off in his ears. Stepping back from the cell Cloud clutched at his head to try to stop the unbearable noise. Dropping to his knees as the sound overcame him, he started to tilt backwards when a pair of gentle hands stifled his fall, catching him before any damage could be done. The sound of Cloud's knees giving out must have alerted her because leaning his head back, Cloud gazed up into Tifa's worried face.

"Jenova…Sephiroth's…so… they've brought it here." He managed to get out.

"Be strong Cloud. I'm here." Tifa called to him.

"Did you see it? It's still…alive…moving…"

Barret went over to glance into the dome as well. He raised his head back up, distressed, yet evidently unaffected by any ringing noise that Cloud managed to hear.

"Where's its fucking head!" the large man swore, reverting to the only way he could cope with something when troubled.

Cloud was going to answer but paused and positioned his ear to better hear the thing that disturbed his thought process. The subtle sound of shifting gears could be heard coming from the empty cells. The floors within the glass prisons opened up and numerous humanoid shapes trapped in what appeared to be mako crystals arose. Glass wall divides dropped from the ceiling of the cell, separating the figures into 10 sections. The grinding of the gears stopped and the room was silent once again.

Getting to his feet, Cloud noted that there were actually 11 people encased in crystals altogether but two were frozen together, intertwined in each other's arms. One of the crystallized figures didn't even appear human. It was a lot taller than the others and appeared to have blue skin, although the translucent orange of its crystalline prison tinted the colour slightly.

"Okay! Let's get on with this rescue mission!" Barret prompted as he ran over to the suspected Ancients. "Hey Spike! Need some help here!"

"What is it?" Cloud asked, walking up to the button panel Barret was observing.

"I can't figure out how to do all this!" Damn ShinRa! Always complicating everything!"

"Even if we knew how to release them, how do you propose we carry on getting them out of here? They must weigh more than a ton all together!"

Barret swore.

"I guess we'll have to wait and see what Hojo does. When he gets them out of these crystals we can jump in and save them." Tifa interjected with a determined look on her face.

"Right-" Cloud began but stopped when he heard the elevator gears grinding against each other once again,

A platform slowly rose up into one of the other empty containment cylinders, and on it was something dressed in pink…

"Aerith!" Cloud exclaimed.

Barret rushed forward to try and free their friend but was faced with the same difficulties as before.

"Maybe we could threaten an assistant into opening it for us…" Cloud thought out loud.

"We don't need an assistant, look! Here comes Hojo!" warned Tifa, as the maintenance elevator on the far end of the area began its descent.

The trio ducked behind the crates they were concealed by before.

Hojo walked over to the containment unit housing the 'Ancients" and muttered something incoherent as he observed the trapped occupants in awe.

The assistant re-entered the area and walked up to Hojo.

"Begin de-crystallization process and once it's complete then send this one up," Hojo pointed to the blue creature in the cell and with a maniacal grin on his face he walked over to the orange lion-wolf in the other cell and said, "Send this one up as well."

"Very well sir,"

The assistant got behind the panel and pressed the large orange button for each corresponding sector that the frozen inhabitants were slotted into on the digitalized panel.

A thick mist filled into the cells obscuring the 'Ancients' from view.

Hojo left for the 68th floor again to await the creatures while the assistant stayed behind to keep watch over the progress of the de-crystallization process as Barret, Cloud and Tifa idled behind the familiar crates.

Finally Barret broke the silence causing a fidgety Tifa and a reserved Cloud to look up.

"Man this is boring! Can't we just threaten the guy?" Barret expressed in a frantic whisper.

"We need to wait until the process is complete, then we can save them…it might still be a long time, so get used to it." Cloud explained.

"I just want to _**shoot**_ something! Look! Even Tifa's itching to fight."

"I just don't like sitting around much," she replied.

"Let's see if we can steal a key card from the assistant's office," Cloud suggested. "Want to come Tifa?"

"Okay! But what about Barret?"

"What about me?" the man in question asked.

"Well…what if he gets spotted and needs back up?" The brunette pointed out.

"He'll manage…besides, he's hard to spot among the crates, his boxed shaped head fits right in!" Cloud mocked.

"I resent that Spike; now hurry up! The faster you leave, the faster you'll finish! I'll keep an eye on things while you return."

Without another word Tifa and Cloud left for the facilities on the 66th floor that they previously used to access the air vent, while Barret continued to observe the assistant.

"Stupid pointy headed fool…he's one to talk…making fun of the shape of my head…" muttered the large man.

**

* * *

**All the while the group of people trapped in the containment unit had they're crystal encasings dissolve off their bodies. The crystals were steadily dripping off their forms, turning into globules of light before hitting the ground and floating upwards, dragging a trail of luminosity before floating around the cell, trapped. Slowly more of their features could be seen through the swirling mist but none of them stirred however.

Over time, all of their crystalline confines were done away with and as the mist thinned, two stunning blue eyes blinked open.

* * *

**AN: I changed the end scene a bit, because I thought the original was silly. The first chapter was going to begin in the Spira, the world in FFX, but I realized that there are FFVII fans that dislike FFX and would be less inclined to read it if I began the story that way. Also I know people usually detest Tidus's character and he will be slightly out-of-character because in my story he's matured over time.**

Any pairings that I decide to incorporate will be as close to canon as possible. The story will not be romantically focused, and I'm hesitant to have VII/X pairings...I'll see how people feel about that. Tell me what you think.


	2. Freedom

**Disclaimer: **Final Fantasy VII and Final Fantasy X are copyrighted to Square Enix.  
**Word Count:** 2258  
**Pages: **6  
**AN:** Thanks goes to Stormie who beta'd the chapter. Sorry for posting this so late but it took a bit longer to finish typing because of numerous delays. Thank you to **Ch0k-naT**, **Midnight Phase**, **Nathalie365**, **E Muja**, and **Orange Soda** who have already reviewed.

* * *

'Where am I?' The owner of the pair of eyes questioned in his mind. The image before him focused, his eyes taking time to adjust after not being used for so long. Searching his brain for memories of this unfamiliar place he found that he could not remember ever being here. Looking further in his head, he found that he didn't have memories of anything. 'Who am I?'

A girl with brown hair that reached above her shoulder who had a face blessed with heavenly beauty and was dress in white was directly in front of him. She was right in his arms in fact.

Looking down he saw her hand situated on his right shoulder showing off a ring crafted in a unique blue metal.

Upon gazing at the ring pictures flashed through his head. 'Are these memories?'

An image of a sword fmade of the same blue metal as the ring swam in his mind's eye…Brotherhood…his sword.

Shaking his head to clear him of his thoughts, he let go of her waist a raised his hand to eye level. The hand sported a ring, much like the girl's.

Trying out a smile, his unused face muscles worked themselves upwards and the blue eyed individual thought: 'Am I married? To this beauty? I'm the luckiest person ever! Or maybe I'm really good looking. Wait…what do I look like!?'

Panicking he looked around trying to take in his surroundings while looking for something that could show him his reflection. He noticed that he was trapped inside a glass structure alongside his possible wife and around 10 others.

On the outside of his encasing he noticed a man wearing a white coat of some sort. The man looked up to see one of the captives alive, awake and mouthing something incoherent through the glass. Astonished, the white coated man just shook his head at the blond haired, blue eyed captive and redirected his attention back to the panel.

What the man with the white coat didn't see was a brunette and a blond entering in behind him.

The first thing that Cloud observed was the orange creature was absent from its imprisonment and the second thing he noticed was the blond haired captive who shared his cell with the brown haired girl was awake and looking slightly puzzled at Cloud's and Tifa's arrival.

Cloud glanced to his right to see Tifa smiling at him and the turning to smile at the blond in the cell to reassure him that their intentions are good.

The blond in containment seemed to calm down. A ventilation fan in the container turned on and cleared out the remaining mist, signalling the end of the de-crystallization process.

"De-crystallization complete. 99.9 percent successful." A clinical female voice announced.

The assistant pressed a series of buttons on the panel, which sent the blue creature up through the ceiling.

Before the assistant could send up anymore captives, Cloud decided something had to be done.

In one flowing motion he unsheathed his sword off his back and closed the distance between the assistant and himself, holding the sword to his neck just as the man was beginning to turn.

"Release them and her as well," Cloud motioned to Aerith and the others.

"You. Y-You're from that terrorist group aren't you?" the man stuttered.

"We ain't no bloody terrorists!" Barret said stepping out from behind his hiding place and holding his gun arm level to the man's head.

"Now, free them…we'll only ask once nicely." Tifa spoke.

"Okay…" whimpered the lab assistant moving to the panel, sword still held against his neck.

Depressing a purple button caused the walls dividing the large cell to withdraw. He pressed a large green button next, which in reaction opened the exit on the back of the containment unit.

The blond inside the unit exited with the brunette girl carrying her in his arms. Tifa went around the back and entered the cell to awaken the sleeping denizens of the containment cell. She shook some awake while using a Heal materia on the ones in a more stubborn state of slumber.

They looked disorientated, all of them; even looking around at the other occupants of the cell they still had looks of questioning confusion on their faces.

"Why are they confused?" Cloud asked the assistant.

The man cleaned his throat before answering. "It is possible that they do not remember anything, I believe it is only temporary however. It is expected since their brains have not been in use for several centuries. It's like trying to relearn something you knew. It'll take some time but it is highly probable that they will have full access to their memories in 24 hours; possibly even faster since they have each other to help remind them of who they are."

"Barret, go over to Aerith's cell and press the green button…it is the green button that opens up the cell isn't it?"

"Yes," the assistant said.

Barret walked to the panel by the smaller cell and hit the green button.

The cell holding Aerith opened as well and Barret ran over to help her up.

"Good, now where did you send the blue one?" Cloud demanded.

"It was sent up to the 68th floor,"

"Why?"

"I don't know! For experiments probably! I just do as I'm told!" protested the lab assistant.

"Alright, since you're of no more use to us…" Cloud said.

The man's eye widened. "No! Don't kill me! Please!"

Cloud smirked and nodded to Barret.

"Lights out sucka!" The large man exclaimed, bringing his gun arm smashing across the back of the man's skull with a sickening crack.

"You read my mind," Cloud said shooting a lopsided grin at his friend.

"He isn't dead…is he?" Tifa asked tentatively.

"Nope, still breathing," Barret motioned to the slow rise of the unconscious man's chest. "Just out cold."

"Alright, do any of you remember a large, blue man with a beast-like face?" Cloud asked, turning to the recently freed captives, not knowing how better to describe the blue individual.

Most of them shook their heads, while the brown haired girl looked at the floor pensively before replying: "Very vaguely…images of him flash in my mind, but I can't remember him…I can't remember anything really," she finished, sounding miserable upon coming to self-realization.

"Alright, Tifa and I will rescue him. Barret, escort everyone outside and wait for us." Cloud informed the group of his plan.

"Wait," the blond haired man from the containment cell called, his voice cracking from being unused for so long, "Let me help."

"Fine," Cloud agreed hurriedly. "Tifa equip a Steal materia. We'll get him a weapon on the way."

The three AVALANCHE members escorted the group of recently freed captives to the staircase.

Peeking around the corner Cloud spotted two guards with their backs to them. He nodded to Tifa and they sprang out at the ShinRa patrol. Tifa swiped the first guard's word while Cloud knocked the other on out with the butt end of his weapon. She dealt with the remaining guard, KO'ing him with one swift punch to the jaw.

"Good. Barret, take them to the elevator on the floor below and get them out. I don't imagine they would fancy climbing those stairs." Cloud directed.

Tossing the stolen Hardedge to the unarmed blond, Tifa said, "You, come with us."

The blond nodded, his blue eyes coming alive as he clutched the sword with an air of trained familiarity.

"It might take awhile to get used to this again," his rasp voice pondered.

"Now we get Hojo," Cloud motioned for them to turn back to the area they just vacated.

They silently made their way back into the section with all the chambers and waited in front of the service elevator in the corner of the room.

"Get ready for a fight guys," Tifa braced the others.

The doors clinked open as they stepped on the platform. Pressing the button to go up, the elevator began to move and every body in the small, confined space tensed. Cloud brought his hand up to loosely grip the handle of his sword resting its sheath on his back, Tifa tightened her gloves and the mysterious blond had his sword free at his side, not having a place to stow it.

The elevator stopped moving and the door opened, admitting them onto the 68th floor.

Bright light flooded the lab area. The two coloured creatures were incapacitated and strapped down onto separate tables. Hojo was removing a syringe from the orange beast, filled with liquid and placed it next to another needle also full of some fluid substance.

Hojo emptied the contents of the needles into separate Petri dishes. He walked over to the cylinder in the centre of the room and placed the two dishes in the corresponding slot.

"Hojo!" Cloud cried, "What are you doing with these creatures!?"

"Outsiders!" Hojo stumbled back in surprise. "No matter. Begin the process!" He yelled at his assistant on the raised platform of the floor who activated the machine.

"Taking the DNA from both beings I shall combine them to create a greater entity!" Hojo cackled.

"Release them now!"

"I have no need for them anymore, take them if you want. But you won't get far!" The senile doctor skedaddled out of the room after finishing the last word of his sentence.

Cloud rushed forward and relieved the blue creature of its bindings and paused a moment to contemplate the hostility of the orange being.

To Cloud's astonishment, it spoke to him. "Please release me as well. I shall not harm you. In turn I will help you fight Hojo's monster."

Without another moment's hesitation Cloud cut the straps holding down the orange organism.

"What's your name?"

"Hojo has named me Red XIII, but let us skip the formalities for the time being."

It jumped off the table it was being held on and turned to the chamber glowing with blinding white light.

Not a second later, the doors opened and a blue and orange blur shot out. Hojo's creation was something of a cross between the blue and orange beasts, except twice the size of Red XIII. It was down on all fours, its face was shaped similar to the blue beast man's but where he was missing his horn, Hojo's creation had a silver tusk growing out of its head. It had two teeth jutting out of its mouth like that of a sabre toothed tiger's and its eyes were am unnatural glowing pink. It had a mane around its head of orange, red and yellow hair that travelled down all along its back. The orange hair lined the underside of its body and the rear side of its haunches. All of its fur was blue up until its tail tip that was alit in orange and blue flames.

The blue lion-tiger roared at its five opponents.

The two beasts who's DNA was used to create this monster stood side by side. The tall blue one ripped a long steel bar off of a railing it stood beside.

"Shall we destroy this disgusting offspring?" the orange creature growled.

"This abomination is no offspring of mine."

The two sword wielding blonds stood on either side of the Tifa as they got into their battles stances.

Red XIII and the blue, bar brandishing creature attacked first. Hojo's abomination struck out at the two legged creature that blocked the attack by ramming his bar in between its teeth.

Red XIII bit down on the rear of the blue lion-tiger. Throwing off Red, the offspring countered on the orange creature and struck him across the shoulder with its claws. A bar came down on the head of the offspring stunning the creature.

The abomination turned and a ball of fire erupted out of its mouth shooting towards the trio of humans. Jumping out of the way, the humans rolled and charged the offending creature.

Cloud pulled his sword across the creatures face while the other blond swiped at its left front leg. Tifa smashed her hand straight into its face causing the creature to howl in pain. Recovering from her attack, the abomination dashed forward bowling over Tifa and stopping with its face above her.

It raised its mouth open to swallow her head whole and as its jaws neared her face the bar came forth and was rammed down the abomination's throat, halting its progress forward as it went rigid from the neck up.

A guttural roar sounded from its mouth as it was bathed in pain. Seizing the opportunity Cloud heaved his sword into the monster's side blood circling the hilt of the weapon. His blond counterpart stuck his blade into the other side of the creature. Red XIII sunk his fangs into the creature's tail and yanked it clean off its body as blood covered sinew followed the dismembered appendage. Being impaled three ways, and its rear gushing blood the abomination shivered and collapsed onto the floor right before a shaken Tifa scurried out from below the creature seconds prior to its demise.

Cloud pulled his blade out of the felled beast and the unnamed blond imitated his motion. Cloud picked up a yellow Command materia the offspring dropped before hurrying out of the area, the five combatants climbed up to the elevated area of the level and intimidated the assistant to give them his card key. Rushing out of the area they hastened to get to level 66 to use the elevators to escape the building and join up with Barret and the Ancients.

* * *

**AN: Did you guys like the fight scene? If you're having problems visualizing the Nanaki/Kimahri genetic offspring or if you're just curious, I drew a picture of what I imagined it to be. Its on my deviantart page if you want to see it.**

**Review!**


	3. Containment

**Disclaimer: **Final Fantasy VII and Final Fantasy X are copyrighted to Square Enix.  
**Word Count:** 2264  
**Pages:** 8  
**AN:** I'm aware that some of you find 11 people from FFX a bit overdone, but I assure you that I thought of that before hand and have resolved it. Not all 11 will be focused on in the story. Thanks goes again to reviewers: **Midnigh Phase**, **Stormie**, **Tiri Li**, **commander fluffy tail**, **Hikari** and **yunalesca13 **and those that put my story on alert.

* * *

Having made it to the elevator on the 66th floor, Cloud pushed the button for the door to open. Stepping inside the quintet gathered on the lift. The blond warrior pushed the button to go down but the elevator was still inert, apparently not registering the command. He tried again, frantically jabbing the button but instead of going downwards a pink mist came from the extruding yellow cylinders protruding from the halo overhead that circled the top of the elevator platform. Tifa tried to open the door but it didn't give. Slowly each one of the occupants nodded off and soon all 5 of them were passed out in the area.

The doors opened with a joyful sounding clink and a man in a dark blue suit came in and stepped over the bodies to get to the button panel. He pressed the button to go up and the doors closed shut before the platform shifted upwards. The elevators stopped moving and the once the door admitted him onto the designated floor the Turk began dragging the unconscious out behind him.

* * *

When Cloud gained consciousness he was seated upright in a stiff wooden chair, with his arms handcuffed behind his back. Looking to both his sides he noticed his captured companions.

"You guys got caught too?"

Barret nodded. "Ambushed us on the ground floor. The Ancients didn't have weapons. We couldn't fight back. They threatened to pick them off one by one if we didn't surrender."

"They're not hurt are they?"

"No, but they're captives again."

Cloud nodded. To his right the nameless blond stirred. He sat up and took in his surroundings. Noticing the other captured and his missing kin he spoke up.

"Where is…" the blond began but paused searching for a name, most likely that of the brown haired girl. Deciding to rephrase his sentence, he tried again. "Where are the others!?"

"In a safe place," President Shinra reassured in a voice that did nothing to settle the feelings of worry that the group felt for their companions. "Are they truly Ancients?"

The blond looked at the president bewildered about what he had just called them.

"If they are then they must be preserved. You don't know what an Ancient is?"

The blond shook his head.

"They called themselves the Cetra, and lived thousands of years ago. Now they are just a forgotten page in history."

The lion-wolf grumbled into speech. "Cetra? You mean to say that you have actually Cetra and not descendants?"

"Yes. They will show us the way to the Promised Land. I have big plans for them."

"Isn't that just legend?" Red XIII asked.

"Possibly, but there is always fact behind legend, and the pay off will be worth the effort to pursue. It is rumoured to be very fertile…"

"So this is all about mako!" Barret shot, working out Shinra's plan in a logical manner.

"Exactly. Imagine how much money can be made harvesting all that mako. That will be the birth of Neo-Midgar…ShinRa's new glory…"

"Shinra?" the unknown blond warrior muttered, "…why is that name familiar?"

"I am Shinra. President of the ShinRa Electric Company, ruler of Midgar and relatively all the Planet!"

"Quit dreaming!" Barret blurted.

"This concludes our meeting." Shinra dismissed.

"If you think I'm done talking to your sorry ass you got another thing coming! You bastards are murdering the Planet by taking Mako. Fuck you!"

"Nonsense. Murdering? The Planet has no life. Who's heard of such garbage? Right, off with them." The President nodded to a bald Turk who wore sunglasses standing beside his desk.

Cloud watched as the Turk dragged the large black man out of the room they were taken down to the 67th floor before Cloud was roughly thrust into a holding cell and the door was locked as it shut behind him.

* * *

The cell was small, but still fit two people spaciously. No matter, it still made Cloud feel claustrophobic. The undying sickening feeling of helplessness and unease in his stomach made him slightly nauseous. The cell had one bed, one toilet that was in plain view, one light that lit the entire room up in never ending day and the only exit was the door that had just closed on Cloud.

Tifa had already claimed the bed, lazily moving her foot up and down over her crossed legs.

Arms underneath her head, she turned it right to look at Cloud.

"What's wrong Cloud?" she asked, a worried expression replacing the look of boredom on her face.

"Nothing, just small spaces don't mix well with me."

"You sick? Here, come sit with me."

Cloud did as he was told and sat down on the bed next to an upright Tifa who had sat up to make room for him.

She leaned toward him and placed an arm on his shoulder. Instantaneously, his feeling of unease was lifted by the familiarity of comfort…something that signalled protection and safety.

"Let's get some sleep, okay Cloud?" Tifa's soothing voice grew nurturing, as she lay her head on the blonde's shoulder and closed her eyes.

* * *

In the cell next to them similar feelings of unease were being experienced. As the Shinra guard shoved the nameless blond into his cell, he noticed the brown haired girl already there. He offered her a tentative smile which she returned. He was going to lean on the wall across from her but she patted the empty space on the bed beside her. She was seated upright and ridged on the edge of the bed. He sat down but favoured a more relaxed position so he leant back onto the palms of his hands, arms angled diagonally behind him.

"Hey," he began.

"Hey," she said softly.

"Do you have any memory of…anything?"

"Little glimpses of things…but for the most part…no…I can't even remember my own name…" At this point the tears that were on threatening to fall, escaped her eyes and she let out soft sobs.

The blond didn't even hesitate to comfort the crying girl. He wrapped an arm around her hunched shoulders and pulled her into a comforting hug.

"It'll be okay. How 'bout we help each other remember and tell the other what they have memories of so far?"

"Really?"

"Yeah. I was looking at our rings earlier and I got these flashbacks."

"Our rings? Do you think that means we're married?"

"Well that and our clothes are fitting for a wedding."

She looked down at their attire. He had on black bants and an odd, white, vest-like piece, while she wore a white dress that looked like it was suited for a beach side marriage. The clothing was tattered but it couldn't be denied that it was the formal wear for a wedding.

She smirked. "Well if we really did get married we must have loved each other a lot."

He nodded, already having a feeling of strong connection with the girl, "Or maybe we really hated each other but our parents were evil and arranged our marriage."

"Somehow I doubt that," she giggled.

"Yeah, me too," he admitted, staring into her eyes that were each a different colour…

As they continued to stare into the depths of each others eyes, another memory flashback occurred in Yuna's mind.

_Scenes of a wedding ceremony replayed itself. It was situated at a beach with the open ocean past the water and sand below everyone's toes. Throughout the entire memory, the blond and the brunette were in the same position that triggered the memory. Only when they leant into a kiss, signalling the bond of marriage was complete, had her vision begun to fade._

_Pulling back she smiled._

"You just got a memory back?"

"Yes, of our wedding."

The blond looked pleased but his eyes hid a deeper emotion. "So we are married then…"

"Mm hmm"

"Must've happened right before we got frozen. That sucks. I wonder if we enjoyed it."

"I'm sure it was great," the brunette continued to smile at him and leant into him, placing a hand on his chest. Her hand smoothed over the fabric but stopped when it came across something slightly protruding from underneath his shirt. She reached down under his shirt past the collar and pulled out a letter pendant on a silver necklace.

"Hmm…it could either be a 'T' or a 'J'. What do you think?"

"I'm not sure, probably represents my name."

"Well at least I can call you something until we remember more."

"What are you going to call me?"

"TJ of course!"

"Okay," the blond agreed. "What about your necklace?"

She reached down and rested the pendant turning it towards her.

"Could be a 'Y' or a 'V'." TJ stated.

"I think it looks more like a 'Y'. Look how it stems down."

"Y?" he asked.

"Well because of-" she began but TJ cut her off.

"No I meant, can I call you Y then?"

She sniggered. "Y is a horrible name. At least TJ sounds like a nickname. Fine you can call me Y until we get a better replacement."

So the two newly named individuals talked a bit further before Y nodded off and TJ was left to his thoughts about his unknown marriage.

* * *

Meanwhile, the cell next to them was occupied by the proven descendant of the Ancients and a person of small stature wearing a science suit that covered him head to foot.

"Hi!" Aerith kindly greeted the suited person.

In response all she got was anxious shuffling of feet off in the corner farthest from her.

"Um...what's your name?"

She still got no answer.

"Would you like to have a seat on the bed with me?" she asked kind-heartedly. When still no reply was given she added, "I don't bite you know."

To that the yellow suited individual walked over unsure of himself and hopped up onto the bed after a moments hesitation.

"I'm Aerith, do you have a name?"

"I can't remember." A sad voice came out from underneath the gear covering his face.

"I'm sorry. You can't remember anything at all?"

He shook his head.

"Can you remember why you're wearing that suit?" she asked, amusement playing around her lips.

He shook his head again, and then paused to think before saying, "It does look a bit stupid doesn't it?"

"No, no! Whatever suits you…well maybe a little silly."

With that he reached up to his neckline and unzipped the suit halfway. He grabbed the portion covering his head and pulled it off, revealing a young boy with long blond hair and spiral green eyes.

"Wow, your eyes are so beautiful!" The flower girl exclaimed in surprise.

The boy blushed; he wasn't used to getting complimented by older women.

"Thanks," he replied shyly, lowering his head to hide his burning face.

Not being able to carry on a conversation with a boy with amnesia, Aerith stayed silent.

"So, why are you being held captive?" the boy asked nervously.

"They want me here because I'm the last of my kind. The only remaining Ancient."

"Ancient?"

"You don't know what an Ancient is? Well you're not alone, not a lot of people remember them."

"What makes an Ancient so different? You still look like a normal person to me."

"It is the way we live our lives. And the Planet can communicate with us. The Cetra, the real name for the Ancients, were born from the Planet, speak with the Planet , and unlock the Planet…and then...the Cetra will return to the Promised Land. A land that promises supreme happiness."

"Speak with the Planet? What does it say?"

"It's full of people and it's noisy. That's why I can't make out what they are saying."

"So can you hear the Planet now?" the boy asked curiously, wanting to know more.

"I only heard it at the Church in the Slums. Mother said that Midgar was not safe anymore. That is…my real mother. That's why I need to leave Midgar, to speak with the Planet and find my Promised Land…that's what mom said, I can still hear her. I thought it would stop as I grew up, but…"

"The Promised Land?" the boy fired off another question.

"Yes. ShinRa want me to find them the Promised Land…they believe it is full of Mako they want to turn into energy. What they don't understand is Mako isn't limitless and the Planet needs it to survive…"

Hearing the words the boy blanched as images flew through his head.

_In front of him he was looking at some kind of data on a computer screen when a girl with shoulder length brown hair asked him: "What are you looking at?"_

_Replying he answered "Farplane data. The more I study it, the more fascinating it gets. There's limitless energy swirling around in there."  
_

_"Limitless energy?" the girl asked.  
_

_"The life force that flows through our planet...I think. With a little work, we could probably extract the energy in a useable form."_

The memory ended, but the boy remained as pale as before. He just thought of what he was possibly responsible for.

"Are you okay?" the girl in pink asked.

He shook his head, eyes wide and terrified.

"What wrong?"

"I...I just had a flashback…from…from before…I thought it was limitless. I'm sorry!" the boy yelled, going slightly hysterical.

The flower girl wrapped the small boy up in her arms, clearly in need of comfort. "It's okay, everything will be fine…you'll see." She soothed.

He sobbed into her shoulder, remaining in that position until sleep overcame him.

* * *

**AN: Sorry that this chapter was slower than the others and lacked action. I felt somethings needed to explored more. I'm going to try to have the crew out of the ShinRa building and starting their adventure by the end of next chapter.**

**If I get 10+ review for chapter 3 then I'll update by Monday.**


	4. Recollection

**Disclaimer: **Final Fantasy VII and Final Fantasy X are copyrighted to Square Enix.  
**Word Count:** 2544  
**Pages:** 8  
**AN: **Sorry everyone, I promised to some people that this chapter would come out sooner, like last weekend, but football (soccer) season has started and I have four practises a week (I play semi-pro) and I'm helping out with the house league program as well, and also my summer course (not summer school...extra class in university) has started. Thanks again to everyone who C2'd or alerted my story. Thanks to reviewers: **Stormie, yunalesca13, Tiri Li, WolfenDragonfly, Sakura Lisel, **and **Midnight Phase. **

* * *

Y's night was eventful. Her sleep was filled with dreams. They were her memories to be more exact.

_She remembered the wave of emotion that she experienced ever since __his__ return. She was in blissful disbelief, unsure if she was dreaming, and questioning his tangibility. Was he going to disappear again? She didn't think so, but regardless she wanted to enjoy every moment possible with him for as long a time that they were blessed to be together. _

_The night she was reminiscing on was one of the many that she and her love spent together at the base of their favourite palm tree on the beach by Besaid. The large leaves above them swayed slightly in a breeze that made the heat of Besaid's night comfortable. She was lying with her back against TJ's chest; their forms fitting together in such a perfect manner that it seemed they were fated so, as it destiny carved them for each other. She leaned her head back and looked up at the celestial body hanging over them. _

"_Wow," Y said in a soft voice, breaking the comfortable silence, "Do you see that star?"_

_TJ raised his head off her shoulder and gazed at the black blanketing the sky. He saw what she was referring to: a brilliant ball of light blazing across the dark canvas, behind it a tail of streaking luminosity._

"_It's beautiful," he answered, "But no where as stunning as you are."_

_She smiled and rewarded him with a passionate kiss. Stopping to catch their breath, the blond had a look on his face indicating that he had just thought of something._

"_Hey Yuna," he began, "How would you like to tour Spira with me all over again? We can enjoy the sights without having to worry about any obstacles like last time. I never got to fully appreciate the landscape."_

_She smiled. "I would love to…__**Tidus**__."_

She awoke with a sudden start, with that name on her breath. Sitting upright she repeated the name several times to herself before taking in her surroundings. She saw that she was in a cube-like, metallic, 4 sided room that hosted the bed she slept on and some kind of apparatus that held a ball of light, illuminating the entire room.

She saw Tidus sleeping beside her, but she could not figure out how they got into this room.

'What happened yesterday?' she thought.

The blond next to her was awakening, disturbed from his slumber by her sudden movement. She nudged his shoulder to rouse him faster.

"Tidus wake up."

He groaned at first, but then bolted upright with a grin on his face. "You remembered my name!"

"How could I forget it? What I don't remember is how we ended up in this room!" She replied, bewilderment evident on her face.

Now it was Tidus's turn to look confused. "Well, Cloud and Tifa saved us, but we ended up getting captured while trying to escape."

"Cloud? Is that a person? Wait, what do you mean saved?"

"I'm not too sure but we woke up in these huge glass cylinders and nobody could remember their past. Neither could you. Not even our names. I still can't remember anything before yesterday."

She sat in silence, mulling over everything he told her. She paused a moment, recollecting the events of yesterday and recalled their attempted escape.

"But you said you knew my name. Tidus right? Could you remember yours?"

"You told it too me in my dream. Well, I was dreaming but it was really my memories that were coming back…my name is Yuna."

"Yuna," he smiled to himself, softly repeating the name, "It's lovely."

She smiled.

"Could you remember everything? Like how we ended up here?" Tidus inquired.

"Well almost everything. I can remember my whole life up until your return."

"My return…? But you have no idea how we ended up here?"

"No," she responded, "I remember us getting married, but not you proposing, or anything after the wedding. I guess that would indicate how we got here, seeing as we're still wearing our wedding attire." She had on a small, puzzled smile.

Playing with the ring on his finger, he mused over the idea of being married. He was worried.

"Can we get out of here?" She wondered.

"No, the door is locked."

"I guess we have to wait."

When Cloud awoke, he was no longer sharing the bed with Tifa. He stretched before sitting up to see he was sprawled out on the floor. He looked up at the bed where Tifa dozed peacefully. He turned his head to glance behind him to see that the door was open.

Jumping to his feet, he tried to wake his friend but she just groaned and remained in her dormant state. He walked to the door and popped his head out the door to see what caused the door to unlock. He noticed the guard at the end of the hall lying in a pool of dried blood.

"What's happened?" Cloud muttered to himself, before turning back inside and gently shaking Tifa awake. "Tifa! Wake up!"

"Cloud? What's wrong?" she asked.

"Something's happened outside. The door's open."

"Come on then! Let's get out of here," She grabbed his hand and ran out dragging him behind her.

She stopped at the dead guard, lying face down in his own blood.

"He must have the keys on him. Let's free the others."

Tifa tentatively searched the pockets of the guard making sure to avoid getting the blood on her. Before long she stood up holding a set of key cards.

"You go free the others, I'll keep watch," Tifa commanded as she threw the key cards to Cloud.

Cloud ran to the other doors and tried each card until he found the appropriate one for opening that door. He repeated the process until all occupants were freed and shaken awake. When he had exited the last room with Barret and Nanaki trailing behind him, he saw that the group had already met up with Tifa and the cluster was buzzing with energetic conversation.

When he arrived, the 'Ancients' seemed to be making introductions to Tifa. Cloud stepped in next to her right as a woman just finished introducing herself as 'Lulu'.

"Did all of you regain memories of your pasts?" Cloud asked.

"Everyone except me," the nameless blond from yesterday spoke up. "But Yuna told me my name is Tidus."

The woman with the shoulder length hair who was awoken with Tidus introduced herself as Yuna.

"This is like the time we all thought Tidus lost his mind cause he got to close to Sin," A man with orange hair that curled up vertically in the front contributed. "Except now, I don't think he can actually remember anything, ya?"

"So for certain he has no memories this time?" a short blonde girl asked.

"Positive. I can't remember anything before yesterday. I have flashbacks when I see or hear something familiar. Other than that…nothing…" Tidus answered.

"Odd. When we rescued you guys, I asked the assistant I threatened why you all seemed so dazed and he said that none of you would have memories. But he mentioned that the memory loss was only temporary and you would regain everything within 24 hours." Cloud pondered.

"As much as I'd like to get to know you all I think we have to cut the introductions short to only names, since we still have to get out of this building in one piece," Tifa interrupted.

"Right, well I'm Rikku. Hiya!" a short blonde girl informed enthusiastically.

A blond guy with an eye patch covering his right eye introduced himself as Gippal, while another blond man, who was significantly older than the rest of the group, said his name was Cid.

A silver haired woman and a platinum haired man established there names as Paine and Baralai respectively. Holding Aerith's hand was a small blond boy.

"This is Shinra. He's a bit shy." She said while having a look on her face that stated that no one should be insensitive enough to say anything about the boy's name. Out of the corner of his eye, Cloud saw the name on Barret's lips as the large black man inaudibly whispered.

Lulu introduced herself again along with her husband, Wakka, the man with the orange hair that challenged Cloud's hair in defying gravity.

The blue furred being did not speak when it became apparent that it was his turn for an introduction so Yuna did it for him, "This is Kimahri of the Ronso tribe."

Red XIII registered the information in his head and decided to ask his blue companion about his people at a later, more appropriate time.

Tifa quickly introduced the Midgar crew and then they were on their way. Red XIII ran ahead while Barret declared he would clean up in the area before joining up with the rest of them.

Paine picked up the dropped sword off of the fallen guard and the five individuals with weapons, Cloud, Tifa, Tidus, Aerith and Paine, went in the front while the rest of the group followed from behind.

They met up with Red XIII in the lab area in front of the dome that held Jenova…except now Jenova wasn't inside it; the cell's wall was destroyed and the chamber was empty.

"It seems that the specimen went up to the next level using the service elevator." Red XIII observed and took off after the escaped being.

Cloud and crew went up to the next level in groups of threes where they found the orange lion-wolf battling with several escaped Hojo experiments and specimens and armed ones of the group jumped into the fray to assist him.

Cloud brought his sword down on a creature that looked like an upright, sarcoline (**1**) carrot called a Vargid. The vegetable fiend was cleaved in half, falling into two detached pieces.

Tifa attacked a Brain-Pod and broke the glass that encased the lobe while Aerith followed up her hit and rammed her Mythril Rod into the cerebrum effectively destroying the floating abomination.

Tidus was assisting Kimahri with a Zenene. The morel feline's hindquarters was being held down by the large, blue furred being as the blond assaulted the fiend's neck with his sword, decapitating the monster. Paine was cutting down Vargids and slid her Hardedge through a Zenene's throat as Red XIII finished with the last remaining monster.

They stood before a dead assistant looking at the blood surrounding the body.

"It looks like it leads up to here…" the lion-wolf panted. "Whatever did this left a trail."

A sanguineous path weaved itself up to the next set of doors. The group followed the path of blood and cadavers through the doors leading them up to the 69th floor. The blood continued up one set of two spiral staircases. They walked up one staircase and they arrived in the President's office.

They were presented with the scene of President Shinra behind his desk, skewered on a long katana piercing his back.

Barret could be heard coming up the stairs behind them. He broke the silence induced by astonishment: "He's dead…the leader of such immorality is dead…"

Tifa ran behind the large circular desk. "Then the sword must be…!?"

"Sephiroth's!!" Cloud exclaimed.

"…Sephiroth is alive?" Tifa asked.

"…only Sephiroth can wield that sword. I supposed he is then."

"Who cares who did it!? The fight is over now!"

At this point the tubby, round man that AVALANCHE saw earlier at the board meeting popped out from behind a pillar and made a run for the door.

Before he could get far Cloud and Tidus seized him by the arms.

"Please…please don't kill me!" Palmer stammered.

"What happened?" Cloud inquired.

"Seph…Sephiroth. He came…"

"You saw him?"

"Yes, with my own eyes!"

"You really saw him?" Cloud pushed.

"Huh? Yes! Why would I lie to you at a time like this!? I heard his voice too!" Palmer babbled. "He was saying something about not letting us have the Promised Land."

"Now what? Does that mean the Promised Land isn't just myth? What does it mean? Is Sephiroth going to save it?" Tifa inquired, her voice filled more with malice than curiosity.

"Is he good then?" Barret added.

"Save the Promised Land? I don't think so." Cloud scoffed. "No way is he good. I think he wants the Promised Land for himself for different reasons."

A whirring sound coming from afar distracted the group enough for Palmer to break free from Cloud's and Tidus's grasp.

A helicopter appeared in view from the window that covered the entire curved side of this buildings level.

"Rufus! Fuck! I forgot about that bastard," Barret profaned.

"Who?" The brunette spoke.

"Vice President Rufus. The President's son." explained the large man.

"Is he a better man than his father?"

"Only one way to find out!" Cloud ran for the door that led to the exterior of the building with the others trailing.

They sprinted to the front of the large balcony overlooking Midgar and halted when they arrived at the helicopter where Rufus was speaking with Palmer.

"So Sephiroth was here…" the President's son muttered to himself before addressing the group in front of him. "Who are you all?"

Cloud hesitated a minute before replying: "I doubt that it's necessary. There are too many of us for formalities."

"No matter, I am Rufus, the new president after the death of my father." He gave a lopsided smirk to the group before continuing.

For a man who just lost his father, Rufus was downright gleeful. There must not have been much love between the father and son Cloud figured. Rufus then went into a spiel about the differences between how his father controlled the world and how he will take up the position. It had bits about how his father depended on money whereas Rufus decided he would use fear to control the people because he is too lazy and stingy to go about it in a different way. In short, Cloud lost interest early in the speech.

"Y'all both like making boring-assed speeches though!" mocked Barret.

Sniggers could be heard among the group. Cloud was focused on this new threat however.

"All of you get out of here! I'll meet up with you after I'm through with him." Cloud ordered.

"Cloud! That's stupid. It'll be easier with more people." Tifa chided.

"Fine. Tidus and Paine, would you mind assisting me?" Cloud requested. "The rest of you get out of the building. Barret, Tifa, Aerith and Red XIII can protect you."

The group moved back inside and ran down to the 69th floor when Aerith stopped.

"Cloud…" she mumbled, "I…I want to wait for him."

Tifa turned and went over to the flower girl. "…I'll wait for Cloud! You need to get out of here, you're the most wanted. Everyone get to the elevator!"

"Good luck."

"You too, it may get rough from here. Equip any material you have. It may also be wise to give any spares to some of the rescued."

Standing before the doors waiting for the lift to come up, Aerith turned to the others and decided to take Tifa's advice.

* * *

**(1) ****Sarcoline: flesh-coloured **(I decided to define this word for any of you who don't know what it means. Not even MS Word recognized it...it said I was wrong...even google asked me if I meant meant something else...but it is a real word, google it and it'll give you links to define it)

**AN: I'm sorry again that this chapter also lacked action, but I had a little. I said I'd have them out of the ShinRa building in this chapter but it was becoming kind of long so I split this chapter into two. So review and I can update sooner! **

**I'm not updating 'til I get 5 or more reviews for this chapter. **


	5. Elevators

**Disclaimer: **Final Fantasy VII and Final Fantasy X are copyrighted to Square Enix.  
**Word Count:** 2524  
**Pages:** 7  
**AN:** Thanks goes to **Stormie**, **Midnight Phase**, **Tiri Li** ,** ilovegaara-sama, Wraith the Destroyer, ScreamingHeartstrings, almost funny**, and the anonymous person who all reviewed. Also thanks for all the alerts and favourites I got this week.

* * *

Pulling 3 green materia out of her pouch Aerith said to the others:

"This is Materia."

"What's materia?" Rikku, the short blonde girl asked, her eyes glinting at the sight of the small orbs.

"Materia is Mako energy that has formed into small spheres. We use it to achieve various effects. Green materia gives us elemental attacks and it's also used for curative magic."

"Magic? You best let Lu handle those. She's the black mage of the group." Wakka spoke up.

Aerith handed the green spheres to the raven haired woman that stepped to the front.

"How are they activated?" Lulu asked in her cool tone.

"Oh! How silly of me! I forgot to give you this." Aerith pulled out a Four Slots bracelet and handed it to the mage who put it on, letting it fall down around her wrist. "You insert the materia in the provided slots and-"

The flower girl's speech was cut off when Lulu, after equipping a fire materia, created a ball of flames in the palm of her hand.

"Told ya she's good!" Wakka enthused.

Lulu smiled. "You just focus on willing the magic out."

"Ya," Aerith blinked, surprised and impressed at the mage's understanding. "You guys done this before?"

"Something of similar effect. When you understand magic of any sort it isn't difficult to comprehend how others function. It's in your body; it feels familiar to you." Lulu replied.

"Alright. Well onto the next kind of materia. You got your yellow command materia that enhances your abilities. Like Sense materia, that allows you to better sense your enemy's power and weak points; there's Steal materia that guarantees you come away with a prize if the enemy has anything on them and there is also an Enemy Skill materia that lets you learn enemy attacks."

"Cool! Can I have those? Or the Steal sphere at least?" Rikku's eyes glinted mischievously.

"Naturally" Aerith handed over two of the yellow orbs already in the duo grooves of a Titan Bangle.

"Thanks!"

Gippal shook his head, "You don't know what you just did."

Rikku shot him a dirty look but didn't hold it for long, as she was too entranced by the small orbs around her wrist.

"Aerith, you said that there was a materia that lets you learn enemy attacks?" Yuna asked, while Aerith confirmed with a nod of her head. "Well, Kimahri here could do that back in our world. Would you mind giving that to him? He's already experienced in that kind of powers."

"No problem!" Aerith smiled and gave the blue furred Ronso an armlet equipped with the yellow materia.

Kimahri grunted his appreciation and slipped on the armlet.

"There is also several other kinds of materia and effects but I'll leave that for later, the lift is here now."

The door opened revealing a lone guard, carrying an assault rifle, who must have come up to see what was going on. He probably wasn't expecting the group because Barret knocked him out cold with a single blow from his metal arm.

Gippal picked up the dropped gun. "You don't mind if I borrow this?" He directed his question to the unconscious guard. "Of course you don't!"

Gleefully, he slung the weapon across his shoulder and pulled the guard out of the elevator.

"We'll go in two groups. Everyone with weapons will come with me so we can clear the path for those that aren't armed." Aerith determined.

Aerith, Barret, Red XIII, Gippal, Wakka and Lulu stepped onto the platform that would carry them down while the others waited on the 69th floor.

The lift began to move downwards when Aerith pressed the button to go down. They waited in silence for about 10 seconds when that peace was ended with the sound of machine gun fire and breaking glass.

Coming down on the other elevator's platform was a Shin-Ra security attack machine. Standing on four wheels, equipped with two chain guns and 3 turrets, the menacing Hundred Gunner stood opposite the 6 companions.

"Only Barret and Gippal are going to be able to hit it with their weapons," Aerith realized, "Lulu! Cast your magic at it."

The Hundred Gunner 's chain gun began to roll and Lulu shot an Ice spell that froze one of the rolling barrels before the other fired off and sent the small crew dodging and diving. They got off the floor a little bruised but relatively unscathed after that round of bullets.

Barret handed several grenades to Wakka as Aerith activated her Sense materia to scan the war machine. The flower girl could feel the machine's weakness to electricity and its program's fear that made it protect itself from the shocking elemental power that flowed through the Black Mage.

"Lulu! Use lightning against it!" Aerith commanded.

Adhering to the girl dressed in pink, Lulu cast a bolt at the remaining chain gun which short circuited the weapon, restoring it to an inert state before it could begin to roll again. Having been disabled from use of its machine guns, the security machine relied on its propelled grenades.

3 explosive shells flew at the 6 of them making Lulu side stepped one that missed her head by inches, Gippal rolled under one to avoid the shell and Barret shot the one coming straight for him out of the air with his gun arm. Adrenaline overcoming the fear of being unprotected from severe heights, the crew agilely manoeuvred around the platform avoiding the gun fire.

Red XIII shot a fireball at the robot in counter attack and Lulu bombarded it with more lightning attacks. Aerith could feel the strength and energy of the machine waning, giving in to the physical damage and the circuitry burning out from the unregulated electricity tormenting its core. One of the wheels had already given out and the security machine would not have been capable of escape were it programmed to do so.

Wakka threw a grenade Barret had handed him earlier and it effectively destroyed one of the three shell turrets. Unable to make any direct contact with the machine up close- in fear of getting hit with bullets and the unevenly shifting platforms of the lift betraying them into a multiple story fall- the group continued to hit the security machine with elemental spells and gun fire until Red XIII felt the machine slowly beginning to teeter into submission.

Wanting to make the static state of the enemy permanent, Red concentrated all his energy into his hindquarters as he reared up to charge. Sprinting on all fours at full strength, he leaped across the gap to the second platform and continued to soar through the air until the destroyed chest plate of the machine came directly in front of his face; its wiring exposed. Sinking his canines into the cords of the machine, the lion-wolf's fur bristled and stood on end as the overflow of non-channelled electricity coursed through his body.

Regardless of this discomfort, Red XIII shot through the opposite side of the guard robot, pulling behind him a trail of wires attached to his fangs, like entrails spewing forth from an exit wound. The Hundred Gunner ceased to function as it slumped onto it wheels, unmoving.

Wakka had begun to cheer, but Lulu could feel something else was coming by the sound of rushing wind. Looking upwards, a Heli Gunner was dropping down from above with its conical bottom spinning like a drill.

"Look out," the Black Mage called, not losing her cool temperament as she took a step back to brace herself against this new enemy. Wakka had to dive out of the way to avoid the dangerous underside of the machine.

This robot was reasonably smaller than the previous, but still a bit larger than a human. For the most part, it was made up of a central system, to which the drill was attached. The core unit was shaped like a triangular prism, with one large red lens on each side. On the three points of the prism were 3 gun-copter appendages. Each appendage had a copter fan situated at the top with a weapon at the bottom.

Aerith activated her Sense materia again and she felt that this machine was less powerful than the Hundred Gunner but she knew it still posed a challenge to the group, who were a little worse for the wear after their encounter with the previous Shin-Ra security machine. The flower girl cast a Cure spell over the crew, healing them of any menial injuries they had sustained and strenghtening them so they can carry on against the Heli Gunner.

The war robot brought up two of it appendages, levelling the guns to Gippal's height.

"Uh oh…" the blond man muttered before ducking into a roll and ending up right underneath the machine. Looking up his face was inches away from the drill point and the machine started to spin itself, spiralling downwards as it sensed an enemy lying below it.

Gippal rolled on his side as a lightning bolt hit the core of the security robot, causing it to stop its downwards movement but still kept itself afloat.

Using her logic, Lulu pieced together that most robots were weaker against electricity and she shot another bolt at the Heli Gunner. Getting to his feet again, Gippal joined Barret in the act of pelting the robot with bullets.

Rex XIII had leaped back onto the platform the others occupied and slashed at the machine, leaving 4 open swipes on its metal core. The Heli Gunner reared and brought its guns up once more, firing a shotgun round at the orange lion-tiger. Red XIII dodged most of the pellets but the wide spray of the shotgun round caught several shots in his shoulder, splattering blood on the pink dress of the flower girl he was protecting. She knelt by his side and placed a hand on his wounded shoulder, directly channelling her curative magic into the injury.

The damaged machine hovered lopsidedly backwards to the other platform with its slashed side still exhibited to the group.

Red XIII got back onto his feet, thanking the flower girl silently in the process. In retaliation to the machines attack, the orange beast formed a fireball in his mouth before firing it off at the wounded machine. The heated metal casing of the robot turned glowing orange and Lulu followed up the lion-wolf's attack by casting an Ice spell at the damaged metal, sensitizing the robot's core.

Wakka unpinned three of his grenades and ran to the edge of the elevator's platform before hurling the explosives at the machine. The first explosion destroyed the sensitive metal casing before the other two directly injured the robot's circuitry, blowing out bits of its wiring.

The robot faltered as if in a drunken stagger. Lulu added another bolt spell after Wakka's work for good measure, which short-circuited the robot's central processing unit, causing the machine to drop to the platform floor and implode.

./ ./ ./ ./ ./ ./ ./ ./ ./ ./ ./ ./ ./ ./ ./ ./ ./ ./ ./ ./ ./ ./ ./ ./ ./ ./ ./ ./ ./ ./ ./ ./ ./ ./ ./ ./ ./ ./ ./ ./ ./ ./ ./ ./ ./ ./ ./ ./ ./ ./

Tidus, Cloud and Paine stood side by side atop the huge veranda of the Shin-Ra building facing off against a blond haired man in a long white, trench coat with a shotgun in his right hand, arm hanging loosely by his side.

"Why do you want to fight me?" President Rufus asked.

"You seek both Sephiroth and the Promised Land," Cloud exclaimed.

"Indeed. Did you know Sephiroth is an Ancient? If I find him, he will lead us to the Promised Land." Rufus called back to the blond swordsman, unfazed.

"That is something I can't allow. Shin-Ra's tyranny must end!"

Tidus and Paine looked at each other, confused for a moment before realizing Cloud was speaking of a different Shinra.

"I see, I guess this means we won't become friends." Rufus pronounced, raising his shotgun for emphasis.

Rufus pulled the trigger of his shotgun and launched an array of pellets flying at the trio. Cloud brought his massive Buster blade forward to cover his face and turned the blade on its side. The ball bearings hit the metal of the sword and bounced back slightly, falling to the ground with a light thud before the warrior's feet.

"Hmm, 3 against 1 isn't an equal match" Rufus lifted his left arm after making his remark. His helicopter flew level to the side of the balcony and 3 Dark Nations jumped out.

The 3 nigrine fiend hounds roared and flicked their extra long tails, before casting their Barrier magic on their master.

The protected Rufus smirked gleefully and pointed his finger at the trio of sword wielders.

"Get 'em boys."

The fiends took off at a mad dash towards the intruders. Cloud braced himself, pulling his sword into a position ready to strike. He saw out of his peripheral two swords on either side of him being raised in defence as well.

A shout rang out across the rooftop to Cloud's left. He retained his defensive position but the cry was enough to distract Paine into looking. She saw Tidus gritting his teeth and clutching at his head, evidently pained, one hand still holding his sword.

The sable fiends jumped. Cloud rushed forward and swung his sword in an upwards arc, segmenting the Dark Nation into two halves. Tidus fended off with one hand the fiend attacking him. Paine dealt with her own fiend, which had caught her off guard while looking at Tidus.

Cloud started towards Tidus to help him but Rufus fired another round off from his shotgun and Cloud had to raise his sword again to defend against it.

Paine managed to part the fiend of its head and rushed to help Tidus, running the blade of her sword through the dark hound's mouth up to the hilt.

With all the fiends gone Tidus slumped to the ground and used both hands to grab at his skull, letting the Hardedge fall to the floor with a clatter.

Barriers gone, Cloud dashed at Rufus and pressed the tip of his sword against his wrist, causing the President to relinquish his grasp on the shotgun and dropping the weapon beside him.

"Alright, you got me." Rufus smirked, putting both his hands up and edged backwards, away from the sword.

"Call off the search on Aerith and the other Ancients," Cloud began, "and do not go after the Promised Land!"

"I…" Rufus started, stepping back some more, "I…can't comply."

With another superior smirk, President Rufus turned and ran to the edge of the balcony, the helicopter coming to his rescue. Leaping from the railing he latched on to the metal bar on the underside of the copter that it used for landing purposes.

Cloud activated his Fire materia, but the small ball of inferno missed the flying vehicle by several feet.

"RUFUS!!" Cloud shouted after the still living President of the Shin-Ra Company.

* * *

**AN: Action filled chapter. If you guys beat last chapter's record of 8 reviews then you get an update Monday. My laptop keyboard is giving out and doesn't type some of the letters so there are possible typos (err...or maybe crumbs from my beef patty got into it...damn those flakes!) **


	6. City Lights

**Disclaimer: **Final Fantasy VII and Final Fantasy X are copyrighted to Square Enix.  
**Word Count:** 4,154  
**Pages:** 12  
**AN:** **Thanks to all the reviewers so far, I hope I get more for this chapter though. I also wanted to mention that a reviewer, _Midnight Phase, _started writing her own FFVII/FFX cross-over, if some of you would like to check that out.**

* * *

A loud scream could be heard across the Midgar skyline. The source of the cry of agony sprang from a blond man with ocean blue eyes that were shut tight, as if trying to squeeze out the pain he was experiencing.

Tidus had been looking out at the panorama of the city at night, when the view sparked inside him a powerful memory. The lights of the city's buildings ignited a flashback of Zanarkand's nights illuminated by skyscrapers with waterfalls pouring out the side. The night sky was devoid of any stars, but the vast canvas of the darkened city replaced the celestial lights with balls of luminosity of its own. It was as if the heavens had dropped down to the world and Zanarkand played its host.

The flashback that erupted in Tidus's mind displayed the dream city. Everything seemed to speed up as he walked through the city streets under the rivers in the sky. The flowing torrents of water added a subtle bubbling noise that could be heard under an announcer's voice that was prepping Zanarkand's crowds for an upcoming Blitzball game in which Tidus would be participating. The flashback sped through a part where he was being stopped by a group of young kids and Blitzball fans wanting his autograph. Normal pace resumed when he found himself in the Sphere pool ready to start the game. He enjoyed reliving playing his beloved sport and just as he was entering in the final stage of his father's trademark Jecht-shot Mark III did the chaos start.

In his inverted position Tidus saw the destruction of his city, upside down. The city spires and cupolas erupted into a shower of destroyed stone, and skyscrapers and waterfalls both came thundering down onto the streets below as balls of energy shot through the buildings towards the Sphere pool and stadium. A heaping organism of a colossal size came into view. **Sin.** His father. That was when the pressure in his head had become overbearing and Tidus screamed in pain, clutching his head.

The flashback ended and Tidus tried to focus his eyes, his vision had blurred from the pain in his head, and had turned the world fuzzy.

He raised both his head and his sword in time to fend off an attacking Dark Nation. The beast took his blade in between its teeth, but Tidus kept his grip strong. The pain in his head increased with the strain on his left arm, and just when he thought he was about to pass out, Paine rushed to his side and alleviated the assault of the fiend.

Giving in to the cerebral agony, Tidus's knees buckled and the blond fell to the ground using both hands to compact his skull to try to compress the throbbing in his head.

Before Tidus could see what happened to Cloud and Rufus, he passed out.

.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.

When Tidus came to he could feel a tingly sensation coursing through his nerves that he recognized as the effect of having white magic performed on the body.

Opening his eye lids, Cloud came into his line of sight. The warrior was standing by the Blitzer's side with a faint in his armlet that had been ebbing away. The swordsmen offered his companion his hand and the Blitzer locked his grasp around the other blonde's forearm. One blond pulled the other up and steadied him on his feet.

"What happened?" Tidus asked, his head swimming.

"Rufus got away, but I had him in my sword's path," Cloud recounted, regret in his voice, "I should have killed him, but I showed him mercy for a minute, and he escaped on his helicopter."

Tidus sighed, "True strength is found not in the damage you inflict upon your opponents, but by the mercy you show your enemies."

"I never figured you for someone deep Tidus," Paine admitted.

The blond shrugged his shoulders with a goofy grin on his face. "I don't know what I figure myself as either. I can't remember."

"How's your head?" Cloud asked.

"The pain has settled, but there's still have a light sensation in my head as a reminder. It's like a feeling you get when you're really tired physically, and emotionally."

"What caused it?" Paine enquired.

"I was looking out onto the city, and a vision of Zanarkand floated into my mind, but it didn't hurt until Sin started to destroy everything." The blood from the tanned blonde's cheeks left, giving him a slightly pallid complexion.

Cloud's expression didn't change, but his silence revealed he was pensive over the information Tidus revealed. Paine gave one nod in comprehension.

"Shouldn't we be getting back to the others?" She hastened.

Cloud raised his head, snapping out of his contemplative state. "I suppose. Let's go."

The 3 sword wielders left the rooftop balcony, picking up the dropped Gil, and items along the way.

"I know Gippal would appreciate this," Paine thought out loud while taking Rufus's dropped shotgun.

.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.

Tifa sat on a counter beside the entrance to the room hosting the duel twisting staircases on the 69th floor. Thoughts flew through her troubled mind. How did ShinRa come about 12 Ancients? Where was the 12th? What was going to happen to the Electric Company? Was AVALANCHE's fight over? Did Cloud deal with Rufus? Why couldn't Cloud remember her? Why couldn't Tidus remember anything? And finally the pangs of jealousy hit when she questioned what the addition Aerith and four other females in the equation meant.

As this last thought was mulled over in her mind, footsteps could be heard pattering down the staircase. Tidus came bouncing down the stairs with Cloud, and Paine calmly following behind him.

The worried bartender ran up to Cloud, hastily looking him over for injuries.

"Cloud! Are you alright? Did you get hurt?"

"No, I'm fine Tifa," Cloud muttered, "but Rufus got away."

"Oh, Cloud…I'm sorry."

"There's nothing you can do. We should see if the others made it down safely."

The 4 of them walked down the corridors until they neared the one with the elevators.

In front of the lift were Yuna, Rikku, Baralai, Kimahri, young Shinra, and Cid.

"What's the problem?" Tifa asked the inert group.

"The platform won't come up again," Yuna answered for them.

"Shortly after the rest went down, the second platform rushed after them with a large machina on it," Baralai continued.

"Ma-kee-na?" Cloud questioned, pronouncing each syllable with a raised eyebrow.

"Metal creations built by the Al-Behd to ease our lives or to attack," Cid eased Cloud's confusion.

"So…machines?" Tifa asked.

"Yes, it was a war machine that went after them," Cid said.

"Then we better see if they're okay," Tifa worried.

"Right," Cloud confirmed and went over to the elevator to try to get it working. No movement was apparent after he jabbed the downwards arrow button numerous times, and the absence of the telltale shifting of gears informed the group that the elevators were not going to function.

Fed up with the lack of results, Cloud rammed the Buster Blade in the slit between the closed doors that led to the elevator platform and began to pry.

The doors gave in and Cloud pushed them open, revealing a view of the city of Midgar framed between the entrance of the elevator, but no platform, nor a way of descending.

Cloud heard a gasp from behind him, and he turned to see Yuna gazing at the panorama agape.

"Looks like we're taking the stairs," Tifa stated, looking down at the elevator platform 69 floors below them.

Everyone but the astonished Yuna and worried Tidus turned to move down the hallway, the blond Blitzer staying to check what had troubled her.

"Is this…Zanarkand?" Yuna asked, eyes pleading.

"No," Tidus replied with a shake of his head.

"Do you remember your city?"

"Yeah, I sort of had another flashback while we were fighting Rufus on the rooftops…I saw the city and the memory came to me,"

"I always wanted to see your home,"

"I'm sorry Yuna,"

"Don't be…this is beautiful…the lights…it's like that stars have found homes in the city."

Tidus, at this point, went up behind Yuna and wrapped his arms around her waist. The former Summoner leaned into the chest of her guardian.

"I dreamt of seeing tall buildings, like these, illuminated at night, but little Shinra said the energy used to power a city like this wouldn't be achievable in our generation. I didn't think I'd ever see a sight like this…"

Tears blurred Yuna's view of the lights of the city; creating ting halo's surrounding each illuminated dot. She closed her eyes to squeeze the tears out, and felt a gentle touch wiping away the saline drops of mixed emotion.

Eyes opened, she turned her head to see Tidus smiling at her.

"I don't know what happened, Yuna, or how we got here, or where we are, but I promise to find a way to make everything alright."

"Even if we have to live here?"

"Even then…"

Out of the corner of their eyes, Rikku could be seen bounding around the corner ecstatically.

"C'mon you guys! Cloud said we need to tackle this humongous set of stairs!" The blonde girl threw her arms wide open to illustrate the size of the stairs.

Yuna sighed; though upset her moment with Tidus was interrupted, but knowing that her immature cousin's disposition could not be helped.

"Coming Rikku," Yuna called.

.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.

"Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!"

A squealing Rikku flew by Cloud's view as the hyperactive girl slid down another railing.

The group happened to make an even of descending the set of stairs. Tidus had challenged Yuna to a race, and they took off by jumping to the bottom of every level. Cloud and Tifa were running down, while Paine, Baralai, Cid, Shinra, and Kimahri followed at a more reasonable pace.

.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.

Having reached the ground floor of the Shin-Ra building after their elevator fight, Aerith, Lulu, Wakka, Red XIII, Gippal, and Barret stood around, pondering their next move.

"Cloud said for us to get out, but we have to wait for the others still," Aerith remarked.

"Good, wait here while I see if I can find a way out!" Barret exclaimed.

The large man ran out of the main entrance, seconds later gunfire could be heard erupting from outside.

The entrance doors burst open as Barret bowled through, breath heaving.

"Shit…they got the entire front covered," Barret wheezed.

Gippal and Wakka pulled several large benches in front of the entrance to block anyone from entering.

"Well that exit is ruled out," Gippal stated, "There's gotta be another way,"

At that moment Tifa and Rikku came running out from the exhibit area of the electric company building.

"Where's Cloud?" Barret asked.

"C'mon, you'll see soon! We found a way out!" Tifa motivated.

"Hurry up!" Rikku called.

The long haired brunette and the blonde ran to the show room section of the Shin-Ra building, where several of the company's vehicles were exhibited.

On a sleek, black motor bicycle, dubbed the 'Hardy-Daytona', was Cloud seated on top of the two wheeled machine.

"Everybody find a spot, we're getting out of here!"

Lined up alongside the left wall were three trucks. The first, closest to the entrance was slate in colour and it had a cubicle cabin area where the driver was seated. In the near was a truck bed that rested on 2 wheels.

Next to it was a revision of the first truck. The same cabin area was retained, but the rear end of the vehicle was redesigned to have a higher guard on the bed, with only one back wheel. Most if the car was more curvaceous as compared to the box-like shape of the previous model. The colour of this truck was a light blue-grey.

The final model was a lot smaller and compact to the previous builds. The teal truck retained the 3-wheel feature added onto the model prior to it, with a yellow mud guard suspended over the back tire.

Beside the platform on which the trucks were situated was a plaque that read 'sA-17', 'sA-27', and 'sA-37' respectively, referring to each build in chronological order, and small segments of information were given about the evolution of the vehicle series.

Cid was already behind the wheel of the sA-17, with Yuna in the passenger seat of the cabin, and little Shinra squeezed between them. Lulu and Wakka chose to hop into the truck's bed and declared they were ready to go.

In the back of the sA-27 sat Baralai and Kimahri, neither of them knowing how to drive the vehicle, nor having a good sense of machinery, thus not being able to operate the machine. Gippal jumped in the front, eager to test out the new machinery, with Rikku in the seat next to him.

That left the sA-37 to the remainders. Tifa sat behind the wheel with Aerith in the front, with Red XIII and Barret seated in the back. By the right wall Tidus was arguing with Paine over who was going to drive the pA-86. The small, green, 4-wheel, 2 passenger, high velocity vehicle stood in between the two quarrellers when finally Tidus jumped in the driver seat and declared he would be driving.

"Tidus, you don't even know how to start it! I have driven machine vehicles in my Crimson Squad days."

The green machine rumbled into life as Tidus fumbled with the control panel.

"Fine. You drive." Paine sighed as she sat next to the madly grinning blond.

Clouds lead the small caravan of vehicles out the exhibition room and up the spiral stairs stopping to wait for the others to reach the 3rd floor. All the sA vehicles made it up successfully, but the over enthusiastic Tidus drove the pA-86 into a column.

"Brilliant," disgruntled Paine grumbled.

"I was too excited. Sorry." Tidus apologized.

"Get up! I'm driving!"

The two switched seats right before the exposed red motor on the front of the vehicle started to go up in smoke, and the pA-86 refused to start again when Paine tried.

"Now what? Why am I always stuck with the blondes…" Paine mumbled shaking her head.

"I wanna ride one of those things that Cloud's riding!"

Cloud sighed in frustration. He got off the motorbike and walked to the 3rd floor balcony and pointed to something on the 2nd floor. Tidus went to the swordsman's side and looked down.

"There are several motorbikes down there. Let's make this lesson quick before we get attacked."

After a short motor bicycle lesson, Tidus and Paine were prepared.

"Okay, ready to go?" Cloud asked at the front of the group.

A loud bang from the main entrance answered in response, as Shin-Ra troops crashed into the lobby.

"I'll take that as a yes." Ripping the accelerator on the Hardy-Daytona, the bike flew through the 3rd story window and landed onto the empty 6 lane highway with 5 vehicles falling in line behind him.

The group drove at a reasonable pace, until the lagging Tidus heard the sound of a motor coming from behind him. Turning his head and seeing the squadron of red and orange Shin-Ra motorbikes, he decided he had to warn the others, "Hey! We have company!"

Tifa looked in her mirror and cursed under her breath.

"All the trucks pull ahead!" Cloud ordered and waited for until the sA series of vehicles were pushing the motors' limits and going at top speed. "Tidus, Paine. Draw your swords."

The 3 sword wielders pulled their blades out of their harnesses; Tidus and Paine had scavenged holsters of their own from a couple of felled troops back at the Shin-Ra building.

"Ready to have some fun?" The Blitzer asked the ex-Crimson Squad member.

"Want to make it fun? Whoever drops more motorcyclists is victorious." Paine replied.

"Deal. Go!"

There were two kinds of Shin-Ra motorbikes chasing them. One was orange in colour, the other red. The orange ones, as they soon found out, were not built for agility and kept charging after their targets, making them easy prey. The red ones, however, had better manoeuvrability and braking capabilities. Whenever one of the 3 warriors raised a sword, the driver of the bike would put the brakes on and pull back or draw away to the side.

The warriors staggered off. Cloud was in the front as a last line of defence if anyone happened to get through, and with Tidus and Paine in the back, off to the left and the right.

An orange bike pulled up on Tidus' left. The brave- or stupid- Shin-Ra trooper tried to speed past the Blitzer, but the blond reacted before he could get further. His sword slashed across the front tire, promptly causing the rubber to blow off and propelling the biker to flip forward and be expelled onto the paved highway.

Another bike pulled through the centre, Paine had it covered. Driving up closer to it, she rammed her sword into the bikes' gas tank and sliced the back wheel, sending the cycle skidding onto the cement. The sparks created from the friction between the sliding bike and the highway flew into the gasoline, igniting the fuel and exploding the motorbike, taking the driver and 3 other approaching bikers as well.

"That counts as 4!" Paine shouted so Tidus could hear her.

"No fair!" Tidus protested as he smashed the steering handle of the biker he was dealing with, making the driver lose control of his cycle and roll of the vehicle. "I'm only on 2!"

A red motorcycle sped through the gap in between Paine and Tidus, avoiding hits from their swords. Cloud got ready to take care of the red biker, but when he slashed out with the Buster Blade, the biker pulled away. He followed after him with a raised sword, and again the driver pulled back…right into the back of Tidus's sword, who was readying a slice at out another approaching bike. The biker, clad in red, was knocked forward off his reversing bike, which fell over and got caught in the motorbike behind it.

Tidus laughed victoriously, "Four already!"

Paine, however, was counting to herself the numbers she had defeated.

"5!" She called striking a biker to her left, wounding his arm and making him lose balance. Using the momentum of her Hardedge, she swung at the driver on her right and knocked him of his bike. "6!"

Turning her body 90 degrees to the right, right arm extended fully with her sword held tightly at the hilt, she took the head off the tailing biker.

Tidus turned to see a biker to his right drawing up. He swung his sword at him, but it was blocked by a spear-like weapon with an electrical prod at the tip. Catching the Blitzer ff guard, the biker pulled his weapon away from the sword and lashed out at the blond. Tidus managed to pull his head back a second before the spear hit home. He got a hold of the biker's weapon and pulled hard. The biker came off his bike, pitching head first into the highway, and relinquished the electric spear to Tidus.

"5!" Tidus turned to confront the biker on his left and thwacked him across the head with the spear; the biker collapsed from the electrical shock the tip of the spear produced. Another orange bike pulled up to his left; he rammed the spear into the bike, effectively short circuiting the vehicle. The bike dropped back and nearly took out a red biker who just managed to avoid it, by veering to the side and pulling past Tidus.

The Blitzer had recovered the spear before the bike fell away. To handle both weapons, Tidus had to let go of the accelerator, which meant he was coasting up until now, but he was losing serious speed heading into the pack of Shin-Ra motorcycles behind him. He was also sacrificing balance by carrying the sword and the spear together.

Spear clutched in his right hand, he brought his arm back and thrust the weapon forward overhead, releasing it on its climax and rocketing the spear into the red biker about 20 feet ahead of him. The biker went into a spasm as the spear impaled him through his right shoulder and fell off his bike.

"That's 8!" Tidus grinned, his hand gripping the accelerator again, and speeding forward to challenge a red biker. The motorcyclist swerved to avoid Tidus' strike and pulled forward.

Cloud tried attacking as well, but having similar results as Tidus. The red biker hung at the left side of the highway, where he pulled a grenade off his belt. With nimble fingers he pulled the pin out of the grenade one handed and lobbed the explosive at the sA-17.

Cloud counted off the seconds left before detonation in his head as he rocketed forward on his Hardy-Daytona.

_3…_

The grenade was just overhead.

_2…_

He had his sword raised in both hands as he struck out and batted the explosive back towards the diminishing squadron of Shin-Ra motorcycles.

_1…_

A huge explosion occurred behind him. The detonation took out a chunk of bikers.

"10!" Cloud called out to Paine and Tidus, a small smile on his face.

Tidus' expression changed from the usual one of joy. Anger flashed across his eyes, as they zoned in on the biker. Zeroing in on the Shin-Ra troop who almost blew up the truck holding Yuna, he held his left arm high. Tidus brought down his sword across the back of the biker's neck, severing the head from its body. Blood sprayed onto the driverless cycle's windshield and onto Tidus' bike's front wheel.

"Ha! Nice Catch!" Tidus shouted mirthlessly over his shoulder as the dead driver's head smacked into a fellow motorcyclist, causing the terrified biker to fall off his bike screaming in horror.

The last 10 remaining Shin-Ra bikers decided that the best chance they had was to attack all at once, so they charged.

Paine struck to her left first, smacking the lever that controlled the front brake on the motorbike, pitching the motorcycle forward on completely vertical. The biker fell off. And his vehicle followed him crushing its driver underneath. Following up on her right, Paine slashed at the biker who blocked with an electric spear. A short attack-and-parry battle was wage with Paine emerging as the victory, Shin-Ra biker knocked off his vehicle and his spear clutched under Paine's arm.

Tidus leaned on his motorcycle, pulling it left hard and slamming a biker into the guard rail until the driver lost balance, and his bike lost control, flying over the side of the highway and plummeting to his death, when it hit a break in the railing.

Cloud whirled his sword left and right knocking two motorcyclists on either side of him off their bikes in rapid succession and striking out at the back tire of a motorcycle in front off him, felling the third.

Three bikers still manage to get away from the sword wielders and bumping into each truck.

One drew up to the side of the sA-27, ready to throw in a grenade into the driver cabin, when a shotgun popped out the window and blew off the front tire of the attacking cyclist, causing him to lose control and bringing his bike to an irregular stop. Gippal grinned, satisfied with his new weapon, as he clutched Rufus' firearm, having gotten the shotgun from Paine while the group waited for the others in the exhibition room back at the Shin-Ra building.

The biker attacking the sA-37 had his spear ready to puncture the back tire of the truck, but Barret popped out of the truck's bed and unleashed a round of machine gun fire onto the biker.

Bullets exploded out of the biker's back, blood blowing out of his exit wounds as he was thrown off his motorcycle from the impact of the rounds.

The last remaining biker met an equally painful demise as he was on the receiving end of one of Lulu's lightning attacks. The bolt zapped the driver and short circuited his vehicle.

AVALANCHE and the 'Ancients' drove for approximately a quarter kilometre before having to stop at the highway ended, unwilling to face a 30 foot plummet to the ground from the edge.

"It doesn't seem like we'll be able to make it down this way," Baralai pointed out. The others were about to respond, but were cut off by the loud sound of an approaching machine with a powerful motor.

They turned, expecting to face more motorcycles, but instead they gazed at the monstrosity of a war machine in disbelief. Each of its enormous 6 tires towered over them at least by a head, excepting Kimahri.

"How are we supposed to beat this sucker!?" Gippal proclaimed, voicing everyone's opinion.

* * *

**AN: Was the action satisfactory? So the crew are finaly out the Shin-Ra building, but still not out of their clutches. I apologize if there are any spelling mistakes, I'm afraid my keybroad is dying on me. Thanks for all the reviews so far!**


	7. On the End of the Highway

**Disclaimer: **Final Fantasy VII and Final Fantasy X are copyrighted to Square Enix.  
**Word Count:** 1,275  
**Pages:** 3  
**AN: This chapter is quite short, but its action charged, and something important happens in the chapter, so I felt like it was a good place to end it. Thanks to everyone who reviewed, added the story to their alerts or their favourites. **

* * *

Aerith cast Sense immediately, sizing up the semi-sentient battle machine. Barret and Gippal pelted the large, spiked wheels trying to incapacitate its movement, but to no success.

The immense machine rolled towards them, threatening to crush them all. Lulu concentrated her will into unleashing the power of her Ice materia. Icicles blossomed around the right front tire of the advancing war machine, halting its movement momentarily. Following up with a Bolt, Lulu's attack struck the machine in the torso, stopping the wheels entirely.

Barret and Gippal continued to fire at the machine, along with Cid, who had borrowed the shotgun dropped by Rufus Shinra. The three sword wielders rushed the machine with their respectful blades and marked Motor Ball's metallic body with lacerations, exposing the circuitry of the robot.

Red XIII charged at the tank, belching fireballs during his sprint. The lion-wolf jumped at the enemy's head, with his razor sharp fangs bared in a snarl, prepared to part the machine with its cerebral computer, when the machine violently spun its torso and the blades on its arms swiped Red XIII out of the air. The flame-tailed beast landed behind the machine; where he stood up, ready to attack again. Twin exhaust pipes were turned on the lion-wolf, and malicious gas spewed from the cylinders. Red XIII's one good eye fluttered shut as the beast teetered on all fours before collapsing to the ground.

Motor Ball began to roll backwards, threatening to flatten Red XIII. Cloud ran, sword in hand, slicing at tires, trying to rescue Red. The spikes on the large wheel were almost piercing the lion-wolf's flesh before Cloud slashed the protruding barbs off.

Tidus and Paine followed Cloud's example and began cutting at the tires all the while dodging the swinging arms of the robot, yet the machine was still backing up. Ramming his sword into the ground before him, Cloud slammed his shoulder against the broad side of his blade as the large wheel collided with the Buster Sword. Mako raced through his system, giving him the strength to hold off the war machine.

Tidus and Paine stood stunned for a second, amazed at Cloud's power, before jumping into action again.

Motor Ball prepared for another attack as Wakka lobbed a grenade at its head. The explosion lodged shrapnel into the CPU, yet the enemy's attack did not falter. Reaching its arms out at the group of warriors, Tidus dodged one mechanical limb and sliced at it with his sword. Paine rolled under the attacking arm and severed it with a jumping uppercut.

The dismembered hand started to crawl towards the unarmed members of the group when a metal rod was smashed into the steel palm, halting its motion.

Kimahri ripped his makeshift spear out of the ground and leaped onto the hulking machine. The rod was used to beat Motor Ball in the head before it was slammed into the metal shoulder of the robot, cutting off the circuitry leading to the left arm and ceasing its movement.

Tifa joined the fray and began pummelling the front of the robot with her Metal Knuckle as Paine and Tidus continued their assault. They started to hack at the axle of the rear wheel. Tidus launched himself in the air, springing off the machine's torso, and brought his Hardedge down on the axle with a massive amount of strength and velocity, disuniting the left back tire from the rest of the robot.

Cloud was given the opportunity to remove himself from before the enormous wheel, as Motor Ball stopped trying to crush the lion-wolf and reverted his attention on the rest of the group. Leaning forward, it aimed its twin exhaust pipes at the rest of them.

Expecting more harmful gases, everyone covered their noses, but instead they were greeted by Motor Ball's Twin Burner attack. Jets of fire burst out at them, scorching Barret, Tidus, Gippal and Paine, while the others were far enough to avoid the worst of the attack.

Paine dodged the continuous flames as Tidus rolled away from the stream of inferno. They both attack simultaneously, aiming to hack of the pipes when the robot rolled forward and knocked them with its front wheels, sending them flying.

Cloud attacked Motor Ball's torso form behind, Cross-Slashing an opening in the metal. The blond warrior stabbed the robot's circuitry straight through, ending the machine's fiery assault. His sword pierced the front of the robot, exposing the innards of the war machine. He hopped off Motor Ball, giving Lulu the opportunity to end the battle.

With a well placed Bolt to the uncovered wiring, the robot short circuited. Small explosions occurred all around Motor Ball's construction.

Aerith tossed Yuna a bangle with a Restore materia equipped. The High Summoner walked over to her fallen friend and healed Paine. Checking to make sure the others were okay or already being seen to by Aerith, she walked over to the edge of the unfinished highway and looked around for a way down.

The flower girl stood over Tidus and cast a Restore spell on him. The deep gauge wounds he received from the machine's front tires closed up and his singed skin faded away, giving way to new skin cells as the spell took its effect. The blond raised his head and smiled at the flower girl, who returned the gesture.

The groan of metal sounded behind them. Motor Ball was straightening its body, righting itself. It accelerated at the group full power as a one last attempt to eliminate its targets.

Cloud and Red XIII were safe, being behind the machine, but most of the group had to roll to the side to dodge the attack…except for Tidus and Aerith, one lying in the middle of the highway, and the other helping him up, on the verge of being killed by the charging machine.

Acting out of instinct, Tidus pulled the stunned Aerith into him, hugging her to his body. Rolling on top of the flower girl, he positioned them so they were directly in front of the charging machine…and beneath the robot's underside within inches of Tidus' back as it passed them over.

Yuna was peeking over the edge of the incomplete highway, when Motor Ball headed towards her in its last attempt.

Tidus got off of Aerith, and shouted at his wife.

"Yuna, watch out!"

The High Summoner turned with 3 metres between her and the speeding machine. She took a step back out of surprise, but hit only air. Her footing lost, Yuna fell off the edge of the highway without a sound, disappearing from view, and a second before Motor Ball flew off the end of the concrete.

A memory was triggered in Tidus' mind, from a time with similar circumstances.

_A wedding, an intricately decorated altar, and Yuna in a bridal dress jumping into plain air._

"Yuna! No!" Tidus yelled in agony. "Why!?"

Close by the clouds rolled, darkened and opened up with a strike of lightning.

From below, an explosion could be heard, signalling the termination of Motor Ball.

Thunder boomed overhead and rain began to pour onto Tidus' head, flattening his hair against his skull. Droplets of water mingled with the salty tears sliding from the corners of his eyes.

Sinking to his knees, he leaned forward to overlook the edge, still sobbing. He let out a grief-stricken yell into the darkness beneath him, unable to make out much except for the burning wreckage of the robot they had battled.

Tidus straightened his back, still on his knees, as Aerith hugged him from behind; tears that have merged with rain ran down everyone's cheeks.

* * *

**AN: Don't flame me please! You'll get an explanation next chapter, which I plan on uploading by next week. (I have it written, just not typed yet...and it's way longer then this chapter. This was 7 pages handwritten, the next part is 24 pages handwritten. So you got a long chapter to look forward too...if you review!)**

**Oops, I may have killed Yuna. (It was by accident, honest. I wasn't going to put the end part in, but this random burst of inspiration kicked in, and the entire way the story will unfold is changed 'cause of it... the plot is still the same, just the division of characters will be more balanced.) **

**Sorry for disappearing for a month or so...my social life kicked in during the summer and so did my football/soccer training/games. OH! It was really cool. I heard Slipknot in concert...not by choice though; my soccer game was behind their concert platform thing, though some distance away...so music was going while we played, it was a nice adrenaline boost.. (I don't particularly listen to them..just throwing that out there in case it interested anybody)  
**

**Review please, and thank you! Hopefully I gave you something controversial to comment on.**


	8. A New Journey, Another Pilgrimage?

**Disclaimer: **Final Fantasy VII and Final Fantasy X are copyrighted to Square Enix.  
**Word Count: 3, 480  
Pages: 13  
AN: Sorry for disapearing for an entire month. I was very social during the summer, and I lost the interest to type. Thanks to all my reviewers. I still want reviews though.**

* * *

Hugging Tidus, thanking him for saving her life, Aerith embraces the bawling blitzer. Rikku looks for comfort in the arms of her father, crying for her lost cousin, while her father sheds a tear for his neice.

Although their responsibility as Yuna's Guardians ended with her Pilgramage, the sombre Lulu and her still feel the shocking grasps of failure ripping at their hearts.

Paine, Baralai and Gippal huddle in a group solemnly.

"I don't suppose we'll ever see Tidus the same again." Paine states melancholically. "And I was just getting used to his cheerful demeanour."

Baralai nods once and puts a hand on Paine's shoulder, while Gippal remains too dazed for words. Red XIII lets out a howl, mourning the Summoner. Shinra begans to sob and Tifa comes over to comfort the young Al Behd, while Barret wipes at his eye with his good hand.

Cloud stands with his head down, the feeling of guilt making its presence known. It was he who had gotten them involved.

Tifa hands off Shinra to Cid, who had released the crying Rikku to Gippal, the blondes needing comforting as well. Suffice to say the entire group is rather miserable and feel downtrodden at the moment.

The brunette bartender walks over to Cloud and places a hand on his shoulder. Cloud glances at her for a second before wrapping her in an unexpected hug. Rubbing the blond warrior's back comfortingly, Tifa said, "What's on your mind, Cloud?"

"They must have been best friends, Yuna and Tidus…"

"You can't blame yourself for what happened,"

Cloud shook his head, "It's not that…I'm…I wouldn't have wanted…I don't know what I would do if I were in his place."

Tifa tightens her hug, not knowing how else to comfort him.

Aerith finally lets go of Tidus and he stands, turning to the rest of the group with a determined look on is face.

"Rikku, you must remember happened after Yuna jumped at the wedding?"

The Al Behd girl looked at him with tear filled eyes momentarily before bursting out into a fresh round of sobbing.

"She summoned Valefor," Lulu replies in the Al Behd girl's place.

"Maybe she summoned something to help her again!"

"I don't think that's possible Tidus. All the Aeons are gone, and we don't know if they exist in this land. Even if she did, don't you think she would have come back to us by now?

"But…but what if…"

"I'm sorry,"

"It's not fair!" Tidus yelled. Flashbacks having to let Yuna go at the end of their journey played through his mind. "Why can't we be let to be together?"

Everyone gave him sympathetic looks.

"I empathize with you Tidus," Lulu tries to comfort.

"How can you! None of you know what its like to lose someone so close!" Tidus yells in frustration.

"I lost Chappu, and Vidina. The baby I never got to see grow up." Lulu stated in a saddened state.

"I lost my brother and my son, Tidus. They're both gone brudda." Wakka reinforced, yet not angry at his fellow blitzer, knowing of the pain his friend's experiencing.

Tidus gives him an apologetic look.

"I am the last of my race," Red XIII adds.

"Our families, our town," Tifa says while Cloud nods beside her.

"My kind, my mother…my first love," Aerith lists.

"My wife…my best friend…" Barret moans in misery.

"My wife, my sister, my son, my niece are all gone," Cid inputs.

"Yuna…she was my cousin…I lost her too, Tidus." Rikku sobs.

"We have all lost precious people to us, Tidus. Not to mention our ways of life have been destroyed," Baralai summed up.

"I'm sorry you guys. I didn't know…couldn't remember…" Tidus apologizes, blinking tears from his eyes.

Cloud looks up all of a sudden, realization printed on his face. "Lulu, you said that you and Wakka lost your son, didn't you?"

"Yes," she replied, tears threatening to spill.

"Was he with you when you were frozen?"

"I can't remember anything from that day, not how we were frozen or if Vidina was with us, but the chances are that he was. We never went anywhere without him,"

"Well, when Tifa, Barret and I overheard of your existence in a board meeting, the President stated that one of the 12 were awakened 5 years prior."

"And what else was said?" Lulu asks hopefully.

"It turns out the one that was released was in his infancy. Since he was too young to speak, they deemed him useless to the company and orphaned him. His last known whereabouts were in Sector 3."

"So Vidina may still be alive!?" Wakka exclaims.

"They freed him 5 years ago…if he managed to survive then he would be older, and possibly indistinguishable." Cloud continues.

"He has flaming red hair. That's a pretty rare trait, ya?"

"We have to try to find him, regardless of his age; I'll never give up on my baby."

Nobody speaks for several minutes, pondering how to approach the difficult search or how hopeless the search truly appears to be. Rustling can be heard by the edge of the highway and all the fighters stand in a ready position, anticipating another being set on hunting them, but blue fur confirmes the presence of Kimahri.

"Where did you go Kimahri?" Tidus asks.

"Kimahri look for body of Yuna. Yuna not dead." The Ronso states, a smile on his furry lips.

"What!? Are you serious!" Tidus jumps up smiling.

"Kimahri not find body. Scent of Yuna lead toward city."

Rikku runs to hug the Ronso in joy.

Loud speech consisting of joy for their friend's survival erupts across the group.

"So how come Yuna's in the city?" Rikku asks.

"Maybe she did manage to summon a flying beast, or something carried her off. I'm pretty sure she would come back to us otherse." Lulu theorizes.

"So what now?" Aerith asked.

"We go find Yuna!" Tidus stated.

Cloud looks at the blitzer with a frown. "We can't all go Tidus. I know she's important to you, but I have to stop Sephiroth. There's no telling what he's up to!"

"I'll come with you Tidus," Aerith volunteers, knowledgeable of the city.

"We're going as well. We have to look for Vidina too, ya?" Wakka sats, wrapping his arm around his wife indicating that they too will join Tidus on his search.

Cid walks over to Tidus' side and claps him on the shoulder.

"I will come with ya. I know how much my niece meant to you."

"Thanks Cid. I know you want to be there for Yuna as well."

"I figure I'm not much use fighting but we need some brains too," Shinra pipes up.

"Obviously you're coming with, you're just a kid, do you think we were going to leave you on your own!?" Cid exclaims while Shinra broods.

The Ronso steps up, "Kimahri will join Yuna's guardians once more."

"Yunie needs me! I can't not go look for my favourite cousin!"

"She's your only cousin, Cid's kid." Gippal whispers audibly causing Rikku to fume.

Tidus looks at Paine, Gippal, and Baralai; the remainder of the Crimson Squad. Paine shakes her head.

"Us Crimson Squad, we weren't part of the original Pilgrimage. I don't think it's our place,"

"Well you can come with us after Sephiroth," Tifa suggests.

"If none of you mind our company, it is better than being inert," Baralai states.

"I suppose we can use all the help we can get," Cloud shrugs, not questionning this 'Pilgrimage'.

"What now?" Barret asks.

"Sephiroth is still alive, and he's after the Promised Land. I…I have to settle the score." Cloud says.

"Will that save the Planet?"

"Yeah…seems like it." Cloud nods.

"Awright, I'm going!" Barret enthuses.

Red XIII comes forward, "I'm going back to my hometown. I'll go with you as far as that."

"Goodbye Midgar. I guess this is the start of our journey…" Tifa farewells.

"It's going to be dangerous. You sure you want to come, Tifa?" Cloud asked.

"Mm, but you know it should be alright if you keep your promise."

"Marlene should be alright, right? We told Aerith's mom to go somewhere safe," Barret looks for reassurance.

"Yeah, she should be." Cloud said

"She said she didn't want to stay in Midgar anymore…Maybe it's for the best." Aerith says.

"Aerith, are you going to be alright without us?"

"Don't worry Cloud I can look out for myself, I grew up in the slums remember. And I have Tidus and crew to protect me after all."

Cloud gazes at Tidus intensely before giving the other blond a nod of his head, which the blitzer returns.

"Take care." Cloud directs at the party before splitting off. "We'll leave via the cable hook; you guys can backtrack into Midgar if you take an off-ramp. Good luck."

Rikku, Cid and Aerith each got behind the wheel off a sA vehicle while Tidus mounted his motorcycle. Shinra rode with Cid, while Wakka and Lulu got in with Rikku, and Kimahri jumped into the truck bed of Aerith's vehicle. They drove along the path they recently threaded until they found an exit, which they took into the nearest Sector.

Kimahri picks up Yuna's scent as they enter the section of the city, but it fades as they headed towards Sector 5. Turning around and heading the opposite direction towards Sector 3 proved to be more fruitful, as the presence grows stronger.

Entering the nameless town of Midgar, Yuna's scent increases in potency. They stopped at an inn for the night, seeing as there was nobody to question on the streets; the group figured it would be best to catch up on sleep. Lulu and Wakka woke up early so that they could ask about the fire haired orphan.

Their search wasn't very successful until they reached a woman in her mid 30's.

"Excuse me, but could you tell me if you have seen an orange haired boy, about 5 years old, around the area. He's most likely orphaned."

The woman gave Lulu a bewildered look but replied nonetheless, "Sorry, can't say I saw a child with orange hair, but if you're looking to adopt, then maybe you should head over to the old church. They take care of orphans over there."

"Thank you for your help,"

Everyone was waiting by their motorcade. Aerith looks up with a hopeful expression.

"She said that they may have orphans at a church,"

"Oh! They have churches over here too!? Wonderful!" The flower girl smiles.

"Sorry, but what's a cher-cech?" Rikku ponders.

"Well, it's a place of worship." Aerith explains.

"And what do you worship?" Rikku questions with a raised eyebrow.

"It's…slightly complicated. The head of the church could explain it better."

"Then what are we waiting for!" Tidus pronounces.

Aerith asked for directions and they drove around until she claimed they had found the proper address. Stopping their trucks the little crew exit their trucks, while Tidus dismountes his Hardy-Daytona.

"Alright Cid, we'll be back soon. You and Shinra guard the vehicles. Kimahri, you survey the perimeter."

"Okay Lulu,"

Lulu enters the church in the lead with Aerith and the rest picking up the rear.

The architecture is old, but the place wasn't abandoned. At the altar stands was a priest, who looked up from his reading when the doors opened.

"Ah, guests," he smiles kindly.

Walking to the entrance, he bows to Lulu, Wakka, Aerith, Rikku and Tidus in the traditional pray gesture used in Spira. Lulu is caught off guard slightly, but returns the bow nonetheless. Tidus is greeted with another flood of memories.

He sees himself receiving the bow from a group of young Blitzball admirers, then from Wakka who was showing him how to pray properly when he was to enter the temple of Besaid.

Tidus thinks that the 'prayer' was making too many appearances; possibly even following him through time.

"Ah, you are knowledgeable of the customs of the church. It's a pleasure to have you. I'm afraid this church, and many others in fact, hasn't had many visitors since the Shin-Ra Company's rise to popularity."

"Why is that, priest?" Aerith asks.

"The citizens of Midgar neglect the ways of the Lifestream now that they depend on the Mako energy Shin-Ra harvest." The priest shakes his head in sadness.

"My sympathies go to you. However we are not here to worship. I was hoping you could provide us with some information." Lulu presses.

"Very well. How may I be of service to you?" The priest continues with a smile, unperturbed that his visitors were not here to pray.

"We are looking for my son. I was told there were orphans being taken care of here at the church. His last known whereabouts were in Sector 3. He has his father's flaming hair."

"Ah, yes. There was a child with orange hair here. He arrived around a month ago with a tall, dark haired man. They never gave there names but they took refuge here up until several hours ago."

"And? Did they say where they were going? Why did the leave all of a sudden?"

"The man left the boy here while he went out during the day, like he usually does, but he returned with a brown haired woman."

Tidus springs into questionning at the mention of the brunette, "Did this woman have two different coloured eyes?"

"One green, and one blue." The priest smiles with a grandfatherly twinkle in his eyes.

"That's Yuna!" Tidus explains. "Why did they leave?"

"The woman and the boy both exerted a certain power. She recognized the child and referred to him as 'Vidina'/ I suspected that they were Ancients, because they appeared to have the ability to hear the Planet. The man had been wondering about the boy for weeks and with the arrival of your Yuna, she confirmed his suspicions. I assume he has taken them to a place where they can fully explore their power; perhaps the legendary Forgotten City?"

"How can you hear the Planet?" Tidus asks.

Aerith smiles and answers for the priest, "You just have to listen."

The group stopped speaking and paused for a minute, as if waiting for he Planet to spill it's heart to them that very moment.

"I can't hear anything!" The temporarily silent Rikku whined.

"Shh!"

The busy city's noise permeated through the walls but whispers could be heard inside the church.

"Welcome…Yuna's guardians…" a soft voice spoke to the group.

Tidus jumps in surprise but Lulu puts a finger to her lips to indicate the need for silence.

"Thank you…please… protect my daughter once more." The voice fades.

The group stand stock still for another minute waiting to hear more, but the voice doesn't speak again.

"That was Lord Braska's voice." Lulu states.

"Hi uncle!" Rikku shrills.

"How'd he get here, ya?" Wakka ponders.

"Are we still on Spira?" Tidus wondered.

"I don't think so. Somebody should have recognized us. We did save Spira after all." Lulu points out. "As for how Braska spoke to us, I have no idea."

"That's true. Why did uncle Braska stop speaking though?"

"Midgar is always noisy. It is difficult to hear the Planet within the city." Aerith says.

"Conversations with the Planet? Perhaps it would be easier to communicate with the Ancients at a Cetran temple."

"Is this not one?" Tidus questions.

"Oh no! It would be truly wondrous if it were, but I'm afraid we haven't discovered one yet. I believe only an Ancient or a Cetran tool can find the way."

"Then what purpose doest this church serve?"

"It exists to study and pray to the Planet. There were temples in each Sector and each one prayed to a different god of the Planet."

"Aeons?"

"I am not familiar with that term. Of course, they are now called Summons by the majority of the public as their power can be unlocked via materia. People used to pray for the power of a Summon in the old day, when these parts still had a name instead of a number, and the Cetra's powers were unlocked without materia."

"Most of the churches were destroyed by Shin-Ra or abandoned. This one still remains because we give shelter to orphans but most the houses of worship were moved to the other towns outside of Midgar."

"Did Yuna pray for this Summon?" Tidus asks.

"Yes. It was quite an experience. Most people wouldn't be able to acquire the power since most of the ties with the Planet were lost after urbanization."

"Do you remember the original name of this sector, priest?" Lulu asks.

"Yes, I am one of the few that due, although the name of the church is direct indication. It's called the Church of Macalania."

Everyone's mouth -save for Aerith's- drops in astonishment.

"It was a name taken from an ancient culture, as old as that of the Cetra."

"So they founded the city?"

"Most of that history was lost or forgotten, so we can only speculate."

"Thank you for your information priest." Lulu says, "But we must be on our way to find our friends. Which way were they headed?"

"I recall calm being mentioned."

The priest and the group bows to each other before turning to leave.

"I will pray that you will be reunited with your loved ones. May the Planet bless you."

Once they were outside, Aerith turned to Tidus and throws herself into his unsuspecting arms.

"You're an Ancient! All of you! I'm so happy that I'm not alone." The flower girl squeals in joy.

Tidus returns the hug awkwardly, but Lulu looks perplexed.

"I'm not certain that we are this Cetra race you speculate us to be."

"Maybe, but you can all understand the Planet, yes? That certainly makes us close. All my life I thought I was alone…" Aerith smiles in the mystifying way that hints at her being more knowledgeable on the subject.

Tidus gives her a fragile smile, which falteres almost immediately.

Before anything else can be said, a screeching of tires can be heard and everybody turns their heads to see a large red vehicle pull up in front of the church stairs. Cid jumps out with a goofy grin on his face.

"Isn't she beautiful!?" He enthuses.

"It's a monstrosity," Lulu scoffs, looking at the huge bus-like truck.

"What happened to the trucks? And my bike!?" Tidus exclaims.

"A kind man was walking by when he saw the trucks and said he'd give me anything for the latest model!"

"And you gave him the others as well!?" Tidus cries in outrage.

"Don't be foolish! He gave me Gil for those, and traded the Buggy for the bike and the sA-37."

"But I liked my Hardy-Daytona!" Tidus broods, as Aerith pats his back sympathetically.

"I figured we needed a bigger vehicle to fit us all, and we need the Gil!"

"For what!?" Tidus shoots back, evidently peeved at the loss of his motorbike.

"A change of attire because we stand out too much and we can't begin a journey looking like we're attending a wedding. We need weapons and we can't survive without food and supplies."

"Cid is right Tidus. We can't go without provisions. Let it go." Lulu tries to calm the blond.

The blitzer sighs in defeat.

Kimahri steps out from behind a cluster of bushes, seeing the timing fit to come out of hiding.

"Yuna's scent strong here," he grunts.

"That's right! Yuna and Vidina were here just hours ago. They're heading for Kalm." Lulu informs.

"Together?

"Yes, along with a black haired man, apparently, who appears to be Vidina's guardian."

"We best get going then, ya?"

Rikku's already bouncing on the balls of her feet ecstatically as she got into the back of the Buggy, followed suite by Tidus. Shinra can fbe found already situated inside.

"Hiya Shinra! Do you think my Dresspheres still work? Pops said that we needed new weapons."

"Let me have a look," Shinra said before Rikku handed over her Sphere grid to him.

"Hmm...it appears to be broken…I don't know if I can fix it. I don't have any tools either."

"Poopie! I worked hard for those!"

"We'll keep it in the Buggy. I'll see what I can do with it."

"Thanks Shinra!"

"I can't promise anything, I'm just a kid."

Rikku look pensive for a second, as if she was going to ask Tidus a question, but Aerith got into the vehicle and her chance is lost.

The group got into the monstrous vehicle, all ready to explore the Planet.

"Let's get this journey started!" Cid exclaims.

* * *

**AN: So the journey has finally started. I apologize for keeping you in suspense about Yuna's state. I didn't have the courage to kill her off, nor did I ever have the intention to keep her that way. Sorry to disapoint you ScreamingHeartstrings, and Stormie...we'll see about character mortality in future chapters.**

_AN2: This chapter was updated, with a new tense and slightly altered beginning. I was disapointed in the way it was written._

**REVIEW!**


	9. Fallen Churches, Fascinating Stories

**Disclaimer: **Final Fantasy VII and Final Fantasy X are copyrighted to Square Enix.  
**Word Count:** 3242  
**Pages:** 11  
**AN: Er, sorry guys fo the super long wait for an update. I feel horrible, that's why I churned out the last bit, after a lot of procrastinating. I honestly had no motivation at all to write, life got in the way a lot and I finished my second year of university so my last several months were really busy. This chapter is a bit weird, I wrote the beginning in the present tense, and then switched to the past tense in the last bit. Anyways, theres quite a bit of story developement, and they're finally out of Midgar. **

**I also rewrote the previous chapter somewhat, if you guys wanna check that out. And for whoever's confused about what Aeons are, those are the Summons in FFX. **

* * *

A high arching ceiling comes into view as Yuna re-enters a conscious state of mind. Blinking to get the haze clouding her eyes, she sits up to get a better look at her surroundings. She's clearly in a place of worship, judging by the bench pews facing towards the front of the building where an altar was situated. There are two antechambers at the back, which might serve as living quarters for the resident priest, or possibly where one would go to pray for the assistance of an Aeon (that is, if this place had mystical figures of power like they did in Spira).

Not being able name to the architectural style, she determines it's not like anything she had seen in Spira, but all the elements marking it as a holy temple are here.

Sighing, Yuna closes her eyes, confused about her current situation; it seems like she never gets a peaceful moment of contentment.

"Good morning," a playful voice stated. It seemed vaguely familiar.

Heterochromatic eyes pop open to be greeted by vivid mako blue staring at her.

Letting out a soft sigh of surprise, Yuna hops backwards in shock.

"You okay?"

"Sorry, yes I'm alright, you just startled me."

Standing before her is a man dress in black attire not dissimilar to Cloud's purple military uniform, with spiky, black hair pushed back, and a single silvery wing growing out from his left shoulder blade.

"I know it's quite a site if you're seeing it for the first time." The man said, following Yuna's gaze to his wing.

Yuna realizes that she has been staring as her mouth hangs open slightly.

"No, it's not that, it just took me by surprise…uh, did you save me?"

"Yup, that was me!"

"Thank you,"

"I was…just flying in the local thermals,"

Yuna giggles lightly.

"And what is my saviour's name?"

The man is on the verge of replying when a flaming haired boy runs across Yuna's line of vision and throws himself at the raven haired man's legs.

"Vidina…?" Yuna muttered.

The little boy stares wide opened eyed at the former Summoner.

"Who are you?" he blurts in the obnoxious way curious children spit out whatever comes into their mind.

"She's-"

"I'm Yuna," The High Summoner of Spira takes the initiative to introduce herself kneeling down to boy's level.

"Hi…I don't know my name…but the big guy calls me Junior, 'cause he says he had a friend that has hair the same colour as mine!"

"Ah, you have woken up Miss," a new voice stated.

Yuna turns to see whom the voice belongs to. A serviceman of the temple had come out of the antechamber and walks to where she's standing by the front of the pews.

"Good day to you priest," Yuna bowed the traditional prayer of Spira.

"Good afternoon, miss…?"

"Yuna,"

"Miss Yuna, I hope you have slept off whatever was ailing you." The priest says bowing back,

"I think I'll be fine now, thank you."

"That is good news."

"Where am I?"

"You are currently in the Church of Macalania."

Yuna's eyes widen upon hearing the familiar name.

"I'm on Spira!?"

The priest chuckles, "You are still in Midgar, on the planet of Gaia."

Yuna's expression changes to one of slight disappointment.

"I must find my friends, how am I going to get back to them?"

"I don't know. They won't be in the same spot."

"Well we have to try. They can't be far. I won't give up-…huh?"

Yuna spaced out as a voice interrupts her train of thought.

"Hello, my daughter…" A faint voice whispers.

"Dad?" Lord Braska materialized in her view, standing in a field of white flowers.

"Yes, Yuna, welcome to Gaia."

"What are you doing here?"

"I am speaking to you, of course."

"But how did you get here? We are on a different planet, right? And how is it that you can speak with me here, but on the Farplane you were never able to?"

"Ah, the Farplane is merely a place of visit, where one can view the Pyreflies of loved ones, while the Lifestream is the direct energy of the planet. As for your first question, the Farplane and the Lifestream fused centuries ago…"

"So this is Spira's future…this is what our planet became?"

"No, it's rather complicated how the two spirit energies became one, but Spira and Midgar are two separate planets altogether."

"Then how is it that we-"

"Yuna, you ask a lot of questions, but you will know soon enough. Please help the people of this planet. It may very likely be yours from now on, as well."

"So we're stuck here?"

"It's a very strong possibility."

"What can I do to help?"

"Return to Summoning. The Cetran civilization was similar to our own. We even amalgamated at on a time. The Cetrans lived much like we did. They prayed to the Planet and were in touch with its life energy. They had the power to call upon the gods of the Planet and the ability to use the Lifestream to control the elements. The people of Gaia have lost this connect, but you still have it. Pray…Become a Summoner once more…"

"Yuna…" a distant voice called to her.

"Huh?"

"Yuna…"

"…uh…"

"Yuna!"

"What!"

Standing before her was no longer her father in the field of green grass and flowers but the raven haired man back in the church.

"Sorry, but you were in like a trance for like the ten past minutes. You were moving your mouth a bit, but a minute ago you just stopped. I thought you went completely catatonic!"

"Oh, I was…err, never mind. Priest, how can I go about receiving a Summon?"

"Simple," the priest replied, "All you have to do is pray…and get I touch with the soul of the Summon, but it should be simple enough for those who are strong willed and pure in thought."

"That should be simple enough!" Yuna grinsenthusiastically, "Just like on Spira."

"There used to be a set of challenges that you had to pass in order to get into the prayer chamber," The priest says, as he points towards the door at the back, "but they might not be working anymore; it hasn't been in use for decades.

"Right, well, I'm off then," Yuna states bravely as she marched towards the antechambers.

"Hey, wait up! I'll make sure nothing happens to you! Junior, you stay here!" The raven haired man calls after her.

"Aww, I never get to join in on the fun!" The flaming haired boy pouts.

* * *

Cloud, Tifa, Barrett, Red XIII, Baralai, Paine and Gippal strolled into the idyllic town of Kalm, noticing the cobblestones, and the architecture's use of primarily stone and prominent wooden beams. The entire town was surrounded by a tall stone wall, acting as a barricade to potential intruders.

The group trooped over to the nearest inn after marching through the open field between Midgar, the chocobo ranch, and Kalm battling monsters and slashing down mutated creatures that attacked them along the way, a well deserved night of rest is what they all deserved.

Entering their room, Barret plopped down on an armchair and addressed Cloud:

"So Cloud, tell us about this whole Sephiroth bringing his wrath on the whole world thing."

"Well, I joined SOLDIER so I could be like Sepihroth. We went on a few missions together and became friends." Cloud began.

A scoff from Barret interrupted the story.

"Barret!" Tifa cried in indignation.

"Well what kind of friend plans on destroying the world!"

"Even crazy people have or had friends," Paine stated.

Most of the group stared at her in morbid awe while Gippal wrapped an arm around her shoulders and stated: "Painey has a point, I stick by her still! Though she was sort of nuts originally…?"

Gippal's comment earned him a sharp elbow to the ribs, sending him wheezing to the ground.

"You brought it upon yourself, I hope you know that." Baralai told his friend, while helping up the keeled over Al Behd.

A chipper Gippal hopped to his feet with a grin on his face, "Yeah, but it was so worth it! Anyways, on with the story Cloud my boy!"

Cloud scowled at the other blond, while Red XIII shook his head muttering something that sounded like '…humans'.

"As I was saying, I guess you could call Sephiroth and I 'war buddies'. Anyways, I trusted him until we were sent on a mission to Nibelheim. We were sent to check on the mako reactors there. It's been a while but I was finally home. We got to talking about families, that's when I found out his mother's name was Jenova"

"Jenova! You mean that bluey headless whore we saw encapsulated at the ShinRa building!?"

"Barret!" Tifa chastise again.

"Sorry Tifa, but I was just-"

"How 'bout we let Cloud carry on with the story."

"Thanks Teef. Barret's right, Jenova was the decapitated being we saw in the building right before we rescued you guys," Cloud said, nodding towards the ex-Crimson Squad members who looked a bit puzzled about the statement.

"Yup, so Sephiroth gave us that night off, we were to go to the reactor in the morning. I visited my mom's house, then I went to see if Tifa was home."

"Aww, Cloud that's so sweet,"

"But she wasn't, instead I found a pair of orthopaedic underwear,"

"Hey! Cloud, that's so not true!"

"Who's the one telling the story again?" Cloud retorted, smirking at Tifa's pout. "The next day we ventured up Mt. Nibel, Tifa was our guide. We eventually reached the reactor, turns out Hojo, ShinRa's head scientist was creating monsters in there. In every capsule was what used to be a member of SOLDIER, but horribly disfigured and mutated by overexposure to mako."

"Bloody ShinRa! The more I know about them, the more I hate them!" Barret fumed.

"…who would have thought…" Tifa pondered.

"That would explain the increase in monsters," Red XIII stated.

"Then we saw at the top most capsule, there was a plaque with the named 'JENOVA' engraved. And within it was the creature we saw in the ShinRa building, except bound in a metal mask. Sephiroth came upon the realization that he was created in a not dissimilar fashion. He became angered and started destroying the other monsters."

"Tifa, you were waiting outside the whole time, right?" Baralai asked.

"Yes, the SOLDIERS didn't let me in, claiming ShinRa's secrets laid beyond in the chamber. I never knew how dark those secrets were…"

"After that, we returned to town. Sephiroth locked himself into his room and didn't even speak with me. We found him in the ShinRa mansion later on. He was in the basement when I finally went down, he was reading tomes upon tomes of information. Most of it was on Jenova, I remember his mutterings. He never stopped reading, I don't think, the lights were always on."

"So what you're saying is this Sephiroth guy went crazy from serious sleep deprivation!?" Gippal mocked.

"Well, I think it had little to do with insomnia and more with the fact that he went all nihilistic when he learned he was created by ShinRa as a weapon." Cloud pointed out, while the rest of the group stared blankly at Gippal.

"Oh come on! Don't give me that look! Someone could have just have cast a Sleep spell on him and this whole crisis could've been diverted!" Gippal tried to jest.

"Right, onwards then. He called me a traitor, because he believed he was an Ancient…a Cetra, and that my 'ancestors' drove the Cetra away. He said that 'they', those who didn't like the way the Ancients lived, that 'they' appeared, and started building their own shelters and cities, eradicating the Cetran lifestyle and without giving back to the Planet. He mentioned something about a disaster striking and the Ancients being sacrificed…I still can't make heads or tails of it."

Tifa growled, "Sephiroth? An Ancient? That's laughable, he knows only destruction!"

Cloud nodded, and then continued with his story, "He goes on to tell me about Jenova. Apparently Jenova was an Ancient that Professor Gast recovered, but ShinRa had other plans for it, and tried to create people with Cetran abilities by using Jenova's cells. And thus Sephiroth was produced."

"Produced!"

"Yeah. Then he rushed past me saying he was going to go see his 'mother'. I went after him, when I got out of the mansion the entire town was on fire. He killed just about everyone. I tried to save people, but most of them were gone already. I followed Sephiroth up to the reactor."

Tifa cut in at this point and carried on the story, "I went after him too, earlier. He killed my father just outside the pod room. It angered me so much; I picked up Sephiroth's fallen blade and ran into the next room. I tried to kill him with it, but he wrestled the sword away from me and…and…"

"And I was there to get to Tifa in time, I was afraid I was too late, but…" Cloud's words dragged out, and he couldn't carry on. Tifa wrapped him in a hug, and he returned a one arm hugged.

"The point is I survived," Tifa smiled sadly.

"I confronted Sephiroth after that. He ripped Jenova out her metal armour that kept it rigged into the centre pod chamber, claimed that he was the chosen one, and along with his 'mother' he would retake the Planet and rule it. I challenged him, I had my sword in hand, and he with his, and, and-"

"And what?" Barret interjected.

"…and that's the end of my story."

"Wait a minute! Isn't there more!?" Gippal asked.

"All I remember is incredible pain afterwards and then a large blank. But I couldn't have killed Sephiroth, his strength and power is insurmountable!"

"In the records it stated that Sephiroth was killed, I read it in the newspaper," Tifa added.

"Tell me why, again, are we trying to challenge someone who is unbeatable and can't be killed?" Gippal went into hysterics.

"Because if we don't who will? The Planet will suffer if we don't do anything. And besides, ShinRa owns the newspapers; they can print whatever they want. What I want to know is how I am still alive after all that."

"…I'm alive too." Tifa said.

"And Jenova? Surely, someone arrived at the scene afterwards if the creature was taken to Midgar,"

"Damn, don't none of this make any sense!"

"I say we get some rest, so we can get on the road tomorrow, in full health." Paine suggested.

"Good idea, let's go to sleep everyone."

While everybody was getting prepared for bed, and Gippal tried to start a spontaneous pillow fight, but his cushion rebellion was soon silenced by a sharp strike on the head from Paine, Tifa approached Cloud.

Pulling him to the side, she asked: "Cloud…how bad was I…when Sephiroth cut me?"

Cloud gave a heavy sigh, "I thought you were a goner…I was so full of fury, I just rushed at him."

"Cloud…"

"Yeah?"

"Thanks for keeping your promise," Tifa smiled and gave him a lengthy goodnight hug. Cloud smiled a small smile in return and wrapped his arms around his childhood friend.

* * *

**AN: I hope you guys are happy with the chapter. There's some Clotish moments in the last bit, so fans should be pleased. Anybody want to guess who Yuna's new guardian is? **

**Kay, now go click the review button, and leave me your thoughts on chapter 9! I'll update when the story reaches _60 reviews._ I have like 30+ people who put this story on alert, and I can honestly say that only about 3 of them reviewed. If you enjoy the story, why can't take abou 1 minute of your day to give me your opinion? So if you haven't reviewed so far, then please review.**


End file.
